Exploring roles of the chitinase ChiC in modulating Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: Chitinases are ubiquitous enzymes involved in biomass degradation and chitin turnover in nature. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), an opportunistic human pathogen, expresses ChiC, a secreted glycoside hydrolase 18 family chitinase. Despite speculation about ChiC's role in PA disease pathogenesis, there is scant evidence supporting this hypothesis. Since PA cannot catabolize chitin, we investigated the potential function(s) of ChiC in PA pathophysiology. Our findings show that ChiC exhibits activity against both insoluble (α- and β-chitin) and soluble chitooligosaccharides. Enzyme kinetics toward (GlcNAc)₄ revealed a k_cat of 6.50 s^-1 and a K_M of 1.38 mM, the latter remarkably high for a canonical chitinase. In our label-free proteo

SUBMITTER: Edvardsen PKT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11218509 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature