Continuous Spectrophotometric Assay for High-Throughput Screening of Predominant d-Allulose 3-Epimerases

d-Allulose is an attractive noncaloric sugar substitute with numerous health benefits, which can be biosynthesized by d-allulose 3-epimerases (DAEases). However, enzyme instability under harsh industrial reaction conditions hampered its practical applications. Here, we developed a continuous spectrophotometric assay (CSA) for the efficient analysis of d-allulose in a mixture. Furthermore, a high-throughput screening strategy for DAEases was developed using CSA by coupling DAEase with a NADH-dependent ribitol dehydrogenase, enabling high-throughput screening of DAEase variants with desired properties. The variant M15S/P40N/S209N exhibited a half-life of 22 h at 60 °C and an 8.7 °C increase of the T5060 value, with a 1.2-fold increase of activity. Structural modeling and molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the improvement of thermostability and activity was due to some new hydrogen bonds between chains at the dimer interface and between the residue and the substrate d-fructose. This work offers a robust tool and theoretical basis for the improvement of DAEases, which will benefit the enzymatic biosynthesis of d-allulose and promote its industrial application.