BACKGROUND The genus Thermus, which has been considered for a long time as a fruitful source of biotechnological relevant enzymes, has emerged more recently as suitable host to overproduce thermozymes. Among these, α-galactosidases are widely used in several industrial bioprocesses that require high working temperatures and for which thermostable variants offer considerable advantages over thei...

We previously clarified that the chitinase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1 produces diacetylchitobiose (GlcNAc(2)) as an end product from chitin. Here we sought to identify enzymes in T. kodakaraensis that were involved in the further degradation of GlcNAc(2). Through a search of the T. kodakaraensis genome, one candidate gene identified as a putative beta-gl...

The β-galactosidases from Lactobacillus reuteri L103 (Lreuβgal), Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DSM 20081 (Lbulβgal), and Bifidobacterium breve DSM 20281 (Bbreβgal-I and Bbreβgal-II) were investigated in detail with respect to their propensity to transfer galactosyl moieties onto lactose, its hydrolysis products D-glucose and D-galactose, and certain sugar acceptors such as N-acety...

The two genes lacZ1 and lacZ2 from Klebsiella pneumoniae 285, encoding β-galactosidase isoenzymes II and III (KpBGase-II and -III), were each cloned downstream of a T7 promoter for expression in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), and the resulting recombinant enzymes were characterized in detail. The optimum temperature and pH value of KpBGase-II were 40 °C and 7.5, and those of KpBGase-III were 50 °C...

We previously clarified that the chitinase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1 produces diacetylchitobiose (GlcNAc2) as an end product from chitin. Here we sought to identify enzymes in T. kodakaraensis that were involved in the further degradation of GlcNAc2. Through a search of the T. kodakaraensis genome, one candidate gene identified as a putative -glycosyl h...

Glycoside hydrolase family 43 (GH43) consists of a variety of enzymes distributed widely in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The mechanism by which GH43 enzymes hydrolyze oligosaccharides requires three essential acidic amino acid residues. However, one of them is thought to be missing in galactan β-1,3-galactosidases from the GH43 family. Ct1,3Gal43A, from Clostridium thermocellum, is comprised of ...

T. NAKAGAWA, Y. FUJ IMOTO, M. UCHINO, T . MIYAJ I , K . TAKANO AND N. TOMIZUKA. 2003. Aims: The present study was conducted to screen for psychrophilic micro-organisms that are able to hydrolyse lactose at low temperature, and to examine the cold-active b-galactosidase produced by the isolated psychrophilic micro-organisms. Methods and Results: Psychrophilic bacteria, which grow on lactose as a...