Protein-Glutaminase Engineering Based on Isothermal Compressibility Perturbation for Enhanced Modification of Soy Protein Isolate

Protein-glutaminase plays a significant role in future food (e.g., plant-based meat) processing as a result of its ability to improve the solubility, foaming, emulsifying, and gel properties of plant-based proteins. However, poor stability, activity, high pressure, and high shear processing environments hinder its application. Therefore, we developed an application-oriented method isothermal compressibility perturbation engineering strategy to improve enzyme performance by simulating the high-pressure environment. The best variant with remarkable improvement in specific activity and half-time, N16M/Q21H/T113E, exhibited a 4.28-fold increase compared to the wild type in specific activity (117.18 units/mg) and a 1.23-fold increase in half-time (472 min), as one of the highest comprehensive performances ever reported. The solubility of the soy protein isolate deaminated by the N16M/Q21H/T113E mutant was 55.74% higher than that deaminated by the wild type, with a tinier particle size and coarser texture. Overall, this strategy has the potential to improve the functional performance of enzymes under complex food processing conditions.