An in silico approach to enzymatic synthesis of fucooligosaccharides using α-L-fucosidase from Thermotoga maritima

Fucooligosaccharides comprise the primary group of human milk oligosaccharides. Due to their beneficial properties, a series of synthetic methods have been proposed to obtain them. Enzymatic methods show great promise, and α-l-fucosidase from Thermotoga maritima has emerged as a powerful catalyst for their production. Nonetheless, the enzyme’s limited substrate scope has delayed its wider application. The present work aims to compare the relative reactivity of fucose, pNP-fucose, and ethyl-fucose, while also exploring the molecular interactions of these fucosyl-donors with the enzyme through a combination DFT and docking analysis. The HOMO-LUMO band gaps range from −7.14571 to −4.24429 eV, with α/β-pNP-fucose and α-fucose being the three most reactive compounds. Moderate association energies between −6.4 to −5.5 kcal·mol−1 were found in the docking analysis, with α-pNP-fucose and both anomers of ethyl-fucose demonstrating the poorest affinity. In the case of α/β-lactose affinity to the β-fucose/enzyme complex, no significant differences were shown. We conclude that the best fucosyl-donors for transfucosylation are those that maintain an enzyme affinity and reactivity similar to pNP-fucose.