Biosynthesis of eriodictyol in citrus waster by endowing P450BM3 activity of naringenin hydroxylation

Abstract: The flavonoid naringenin is abundantly present in pomelo peels, and the unprocessed naringenin in wastes is not friendly for the environment once discarded directly. Fortunately, the hydroxylated product of eriodictyol from naringenin exhibits remarkable antioxidant and anticancer properties. The P450s was suggested promising for the bioconversion of the flavonoids, but less naturally existed P450s show hydroxylation activity to C3′ of the naringenin. By well analyzing the catalytic mechanism and the conformations of the naringenin in P450, we proposed that the intermediate Cmpd I ((porphyrin)Fe = O) is more reasonable as key conformation for the hydrolyzation, and the distance between C3′/C5′ of naringenin to the O atom of CmpdI determines the hydroxylating activity for the naringenin. Thus, the “flying kite model” that gradually drags the C-H bond of the substrate to the O atom of CmpdI was put forward for rational design. With ab initio design, we successfully endowed the self-sufficient P450-BM3 hydroxylic activity to naringenin and obtained mutant M5-5, with k _cat, K_m, and k _cat/K_m values of 230.45 min⁻¹, 310.48 µM, and 0.742 min⁻¹ µM⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, the mutant M4186 was screened with k _cat/K_m of 4.28-fold highly improved than the reported M13. The M4186 also exhibited 62.57% yield of eriodictyol, more suitable for the industrial application. This study provided a theoretical guide for the rational design of P450s to the nonnative compounds. Key points: •The compound I is proposed as the starting point for the rational design of the P450BM3 •“Flying kite model” is proposed based on the distance between O of Cmpd I and C3′/C5′ of naringenin •Mutant M15-5 with 1.6-fold of activity than M13 was obtained by ab initio modification Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]