Biochemical and Structural Analyses of Two Cryptic Esterases in Bacteroides intestinalis and their Synergistic Activities with Cognate Xylanases.

Arabinoxylans are constituents of the human diet. Although not utilizable by the human host, they can be fermented by colonic bacteria. The arabinoxylan backbone is decorated with arabinose side chains that may be substituted with ferulic acid, thus limiting depolymerization to fermentable sugars. We investigated the polypeptides encoded by two genes upregulated during growth of the colonic bacterium Bacteroides intestinalis on wheat arabinoxylan. The recombinant proteins, designated BiFae1A and BiFae1B, were functionally assigned esterase activities. Both enzymes were active on acetylated substrates, although each showed a higher ferulic acid esterase activity on methyl-ferulate. BiFae1A showed a catalytic efficiency of 12mM s