Characterization of a novel recombinant halophilic β-glucosidase of Trichoderma harzianum derived from Hainan mangrove

BACKGROUND: β-glucosidase is an important biomass-degrading enzyme and plays a vital role in generating renewable biofuels through enzymatic saccharification. In this study, we analyzed the transcriptome of Trichoderma harzianum HTASA derived from Hainan mangrove and identified a new gene encoding β-glucosidase Bgl3HB. And the biochemically characterization of β-glucosidase activity was performed. RESULTS: Bgl3HB showed substantial catalytic activity in the pH range of 3.0–5.0 and at temperatures of 40 ℃-60 ℃. The enzyme was found quite stable at 50 ℃ with a loss of only 33.4% relative activity after 240 min of heat exposure. In addition, all tested metal ions were found to promote the enzyme activity. The β-glucosidase activity of Bgl3HB was enhanced by 2.12-fold of its original activity in the presence of 5 M NaCl. Surprisingly, Bgl3HB also showed a remarkable ability to hydrolyze laminarin compared to other measured substrates. Enzyme efficiency was examined in the sugarcane bagasse saccharification processes, in which Bgl3HB with 5 M NaCl worked better supplementing Celluclast 1.5L than the commercial Novozyme 188 ascertained it as an admirably suited biocatalyst for the utilization of agricultural waste. In this work, this is the first report of a halophilic β-glucosidase from Trichoderma harzianum, and represents the β-glucosidase with the highest known NaCl activation concentration. And adding 5 M NaCl could enhance saccharification performance even better than commercial cellulase. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that Bgl3HB has great promise as a highly stable and highly efficient cellulase with important future applications in the industrial production of biofuels. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-022-02596-w.