The activation of lipases has been postulated to proceed by interfacial activation, temperature switch activation, or aqueous activation. Recently, based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulation experiments, the T1 lipase activation mechanism was proposed to involve aqueous activation in addition to a double-flap mechanism. Because the open conformation structure is still unavailable, it is difficult to validate the proposed theory unambiguously to understand the behavior of the enzyme. In this study, we try to validate the previous reports and uncover the mystery behind the activation process using structural analysis and MD simulations. To investigate the effects of temperature and environmental conditions on the activation process, MD simulations in different solvent environments (water and water-octane interface) and temperatures (20, 50, 70, 80, and 100°C) were performed. Based on the structural analysis of the lipases in the same family of T1 lipase (I.5 lipase family), we proposed that the lid domain comprises α6 and α7 helices connected by a loop, thus forming a helix-loop-helix motif involved in interfacial activation. Throughout the MD simulations experiments, lid displacements were only observed in the water-octane interface, not in the aqueous environment with respect to the temperature effect, suggesting that the activation process is governed by interfacial activation coupled with temperature switch activation. Examining the activation process in detail revealed that the large structural rearrangement of the lid domain was caused by the interaction between the hydrophobic residues of the lid with octane, a nonpolar solvent, and this conformation was found to be thermodynamically favorable.
Biofloc technology improves water quality and promote the growth of beneficial bacteria community in shrimp culture. However, little is known about the bacteria community structure in both water and gut of cultured organisms. To address this, the current study characterised the metagenomes derived from water and shrimp intestine samples of novel Rapid BFTTM with probiotic and clearwater treatments using 16S V4 region and full length 16S sequencing. Bacteria diversity of water and intestine samples of Rapid BFTTM and probiotic treatments were similar. Based on the 16S V4 region, water samples of >20 μm biofloc had the highest abundance of amplicon sequence variant (ASV). However, based on full length 16S, no clear distinction in microbial diversity was observed between water samples and intestine samples. Proteobacteria was the most abundant taxon in all samples based on both 16S V4 and full length 16S sequences. Vibrio was among the highest genus based on 16S V4 region but only full length 16S was able to discern up to species level, with three Vibrios identified-V. harveyi, V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. Vibrio harveyi being the most abundant species in all treatments. Among water samples, biofloc water samples had the lowest abundance of all three Vibrios, with V. vulnificus was present only in bioflocs of <20 μm. Predicted functional profiles of treatments support the beneficial impacts of probiotic and biofloc inclusion into shrimp culture system. This study highlights the potential displacement of opportunistic pathogens by the usage of biofloc technology (Rapid BFTTM) in shrimp culture.