A High-Throughput Mass-Spectrometry-Based Assay for Identifying the Biochemical Functions of Putative Glycosidases

Abstract

The most common glycosidase assays rely on bulky ultraviolet or fluorescent tags at the anomeric position of potential carbohydrate substrates, thereby limiting the utility of these assays for broad substrate characterization. Here we report a mass spectrometry-based glycosidase assay amenable to high-throughput screening for the identification of the biochemical functions of putative glycosidases. The assay utilizes a library of methyl glycosides and is demonstrated on a high-throughput robotic liquid handling system for enzyme substrate screening. Identification of glycosidase biochemical function is achieved by observing a correct mass-loss between a potential sugar substrate and its corresponding product using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). In addition to screening known glycosidases, the assay was demonstrated to characterize the biochemical function and enzyme substrate competency of the recombinantly-expressed product of a putative glycosidase gene from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus.