Chitin is one of the most abundant biopolymers on Earth, only trailing second after cellulose. The enzyme chitinase is responsible for the degradation of chitin. Chitinases are found to be produced by wide range of organisms ranging from archaea to higher plants. Though chitin is a major component of fungal cell walls and invertebrate exoskeletons, bacterial chitinase can be industrially generated at low cost, in facile downstream processes at high production rate. Microbial chitinases are more stable, active, and economically practicable compared to the plant- and animal-derived enzymes. In the present study, computationally obtained results showed functional characteristics of chitinase with particular emphasis on bacterial chitinase which is fulfilling all the required qualities needed for commercial production. Sixty-two chitinase sequences from four different groups of organisms were collected from the RCSB Protein Data Bank. Considering one suitable exemplary sequence from each group is being compared with others. Primary, secondary, and tertiary structures are determined by in silico models. Different physical parameters, viz., pI, molecular weight, instability index, aliphatic index, GRAVY, and presence of functional motifs, are determined, and a phylogenetic tree has been constructed to elucidate relationships with other groups of organisms. This study provides novel insights into distribution of chitinase among four groups and their characterization. The results represent valuable information toward bacterial chitinase in terms of the catalytic properties and structural features, can be exploited to produce a range of chitin-derived products.

中文翻译：

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细菌几丁质酶的计算机表征：阐明其与古细菌和真核表亲的关系

几丁质是地球上最丰富的生物聚合物之一，仅次于纤维素。几丁质酶负责几丁质的降解。发现几丁质酶是由古细菌到高等植物等多种生物产生的。尽管几丁质是真菌细胞壁和无脊椎动物外骨骼的主要成分，但细菌几丁质酶可以低成本工业生产，并且在下游工艺中生产率很高。与植物和动物衍生的酶相比，微生物几丁质酶更稳定，更具活性，并且在经济上可行。在本研究中，通过计算获得的结果显示了几丁质酶的功能特性，特别强调了细菌几丁质酶，它满足了商业生产所需的所有必需质量。从RCSB蛋白质数据库中收集了来自四个不同生物体的62个几丁质酶序列。考虑将来自每个组的一个合适的示例性序列与其他组进行比较。一级，二级和三级结构由计算机模型确定。确定了不同的物理参数，即pI，分子量，不稳定性指数，脂肪族指数，GRAVY和功能性基序的存在，并构建了系统树以阐明与其他生物体的关系。这项研究提供了几丁质酶在四组之间的分布及其特征的新颖见解。结果代表了关于细菌几丁质酶的催化特性和结构特征方面的有价值的信息，可用于生产一系列几丁质衍生的产品。