Complete (Ba-L) and truncated (Ba-S) forms of alpha-amylases from Bacillus subtilis X-23 were purified, and the amino- and carboxyl-terminal amino acid sequences of Ba-L and Ba-S were determined. The amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the alpha-amylase gene indicated that Ba-S was produced from Ba-L by truncation of the 186 amino acid residues at the carboxyl-terminal r...

The gene encoding the hyperthermophilic extracellular alpha-amylase from Pyrococcus furiosus was cloned by activity screening in Escherichia coli. The gene encoded a single 460-residue polypeptide chain. The polypeptide contained a 26-residue signal peptide, indicating that this Pyrococcus alpha-amylase was an extracellular enzyme. Unlike the P. furiosus intracellular alpha-amylase, this extrac...

The objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of rye and barley starch hydrolysis in mashing processes using cereal malts as a source of amylolytic enzymes and starch, and to establish the volatile profile of the obtained agricultural distillates. In addition, the effects of the pretreatment method of unmalted cereal grains on the physicochemical composition of the prepared mashes...

Potato starch waste, a chips industry effluent, was used for the production of industrially important enzymes by an amylolytic strain of lactic acid bacteria, isolated from pickled yam & identified as Lactococcus lactis. The strain was observed to co-produce α-amylase and β-galactosidase. Potato starch waste was efficiently utilized (91.6%) along with high co-production of α-amylase and β-galac...

Tropical carnivorous plant, Nepenthes, locally known as "monkey cup", utilises its pitcher as a passive trap to capture insects. It then secretes enzymes into the pitcher fluid to digest the insects for nutrients acquisition. However, little is known about the microbiota and their activity in its pitcher fluid. Eighteen bacteria phyla were detected from the metagenome study in the Nepenthes pit...

Industrially useful polyploid yeasts such as the brewing yeasts do not possess any auxotrophic genetic markers and hence are not easily amenable to plasmid-mediated DNA transformations. In an attempt to obtain genetic markers, a number of useful Saccharomyces sp. strains and some amylolytic Schwanniomyces sp. strains were tested for their susceptibility to the antibiotic Geneticin G418 , a 2-de...

The alcoholic beverage parakari is a product of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) fermentation by Amerindians of Guyana. While fermented beverage production is nearly universal among indigenous Amazonians, parakari is unique among New World beverages because it involves the use of an amylolytic mold (Rhizopus sp., Mucoraceae, Zygomycota) followed by a solid substratum ethanol fermentation. The...