Proteins, Under High-Pressure Environments

-Discoveries of deep-sea piezophiles, and their pressure adapted enzymes-

Abstract

Proteins, from deep-sea adapted microorganisms ‘piezophiles’, could be active under high-pressure conditions in general. Actually normal proteins can be inactive under higher-pressure conditions, ca, 500 MPa and more. For bio-processing under pressure, people are looking for pressure-tolerant enzymes, thus, ‘piezophilic proteins’ would be focus on such industrial applications. We have done the comparative studies of the same functional proteins and/or enzymes between from Escherichia coli and deep-sea piezophiles. In the case of cell divisional protein FtsZ, RNA polymerase subunit structure, and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), piezophilic proteins were much more stable and/or active under higher pressure conditions than E. coli's proteins.