Journal of Applied Glycoscience
Online ISSN : 1880-7291
Print ISSN : 1344-7882
ISSN-L : 1344-7882
Volume 63, Issue 3
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
Regular Paper
  • Gaku Arakawa, Kei Kamino, Gaku Tokuda, Hirofumi Watanabe
    2016 Volume 63 Issue 3 Pages 51-59
    Published: 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2016
    Advance online publication: May 24, 2016
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    Abstract: In this study, a β-glucosidase (PaBG1b) with high specific activity was purified from gut extracts of the wood-feeding cockroach Panesthia angustipennis spadica using Superdex 75 gel filtration chromatography and High-Trap phenyl hydrophobic chromatography. The protein was purified 14-fold to a single band identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, with an apparent molecular mass of 56.7 kDa. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 708 μmol/min/mg protein using cellobiose as substrate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest specific activity reported among β-glucosidases to date. The purified PaBG1b showed optimal activity at pH 5.0 and retained more than 65 % of the activity between pH 4.0 and 6.5. The activity was stable up to 50 °C for 30 min. Kinetic studies on cellobiose revealed that the Km was 5.3 mM, and the Vmax was 1,020 μmol/min/mg. The internal amino acid sequence of PaBG1b was analyzed, and two continuous sequences (a total of 39 amino acids) of the C-terminal region were elucidated. Based on these amino acid sequences, a full-length cDNA (1,552 bp) encoding 502 amino acids was isolated. The encoded protein showed high similarity to β-glucosidases from glycoside hydrolase family 1. Thus, the current study demonstrated the potential of PaBG1b for application in enzymatic biomass-conversion as a donor gene for heterologous recombination of cellulase-producing agents (fungi or bacteria) or an additive enzyme for cellulase products based on the high-performance of PaBG1b as a digestive enzyme in cockroaches.

  • Tetsuya Yamazaki, Naoya Katsumi, Naoko Fujita, Kenji Matsumoto, Masano ...
    2016 Volume 63 Issue 3 Pages 61-68
    Published: 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2016
    Advance online publication: June 09, 2016
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    Abstract: We investigated the physicochemical properties of starches from rhizomes of two lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) cultivars, Shinashirobana cultivar and Kanasumi-line No. 20, harvested at the same farm in Japan. A rapid visco analyser analysis indicated that pasting temperatures of the starches from Shinashirobana cultivar and Kanasumi-line No. 20 were 62.1 and 66.5 °C, respectively, and the peak viscosities of the starch of both lotuses were similar 244 and 240 RVU, respectively. The starch from the Kanasumi-line No. 20 at 60 °C had low viscosity, 16.2 mPa∙s, but the starch from Shinashirobana cultivar had higher viscosity, 2,720 mPa∙s, at 60 °C. The onset and peak temperatures of the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve of the starch from Shinashirobana cultivar were 4–5 °C lower than those of the starch from Kanasumi-line No. 20, although both exhibited similar ΔH values (13.4 and 11.6 J/g). The distribution patterns of the branched chain lengths of amylopectin in the two starches indicated that the rate of low-degree of polymerization (DP 5–12) of all branched chains was higher for the starch from Shinashirobana cultivar than that for the starch from Kanasumi-line No. 20. These results suggest that the increased rate of DP 5−12 in the starch from Shinashirobana cultivar is related to the higher viscosity of the starch.

  • Izumi Nakashima, Akari Kishida, Yuji Takaoka, Shintaro Morisada, Keisu ...
    2016 Volume 63 Issue 3 Pages 69-75
    Published: 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2016
    Advance online publication: June 29, 2016
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    Abstract: A spherical gel containing amino groups was prepared using monomers of N,N-dimethylacrylamide and N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, with a cross-linker composed of N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide prepared by suspension polymerization for the adsorption of glucuronic acid and chondroitin sulfate. The prepared gel was immersed in glucose, glucuronic acid, and chondroitin sulfate solutions to determine the adsorption performance in batch mode, which demonstrated that 20 % of the chondroitin sulfate was adsorbed to the amino-group-containing gel. The amino-group-containing gel was packed into a column to permeate the chondroitin sulfate-containing solution (0.40 g/L) at pH 2.0, and it adsorbed chondroitin sulfate to the gel at a space velocity of 4.5 h-1. When the space velocity was changed to 1.5 h-1, the amount of chondroitin sulfate increased. When 0.50 M NaCl solution was permeated through the chondroitin-sulfate-adsorbed gel in column mode, 70 % of the chondroitin sulfate was eluted. This spherical gel may be applicable for acidic glycan recovery using batch and permeation modes.

  • Riki Shiroma, Yuan Li, Jeung-yil Park, Long Wu, Satoshi Kaneko, Tomoyu ...
    2016 Volume 63 Issue 3 Pages 77-85
    Published: 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: September 01, 2016
    Advance online publication: July 04, 2016
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    Abstract: Sorghum bagasse samples from two sets (n6 and bmr6; n18 and bmr18) of wild-type and corresponding “brown midrib” (bmr) mutant strains of sweet sorghum were evaluated as the feedstock for fermentable sugar recovery via the calcium capturing by carbonation (CaCCO) process, which involves Ca(OH)2 pretreatment of bagasse with subsequent neutralization with CO2 for enzymatic saccharification. Saccharification tests under various pretreatment conditions of the CaCCO process at different Ca(OH)2 concentrations, temperatures or residence periods indicated that bmr strains are more sensitive to the pretreatment than their counterparts are. It is expected that variant bmr6 is more suitable for glucose recovery than its wild-type counterpart because of the higher glucan content and better glucose recovery with less severe pretreatment. Meanwhile, bmr18 showed higher scores of glucose recovery than its counterpart did, only at low pretreatment severity, and did not yield higher sugar recovery under the more severe conditions. The trend was similar to that of xylose recovery data from the two bmr strains. The advantages of bmr strains were also proven by means of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of CaCCO-pretreated bagasse samples by pentose-fermenting yeast strain Candida shehatae Cs 4R. The amounts needed for production of 1 L of ethanol from n6, bmr6, n18, and bmr18 samples were estimated as 4.11, 3.46, 4.03, and 3.95 kg, respectively. The bmr strains seem to have excellent compatibility with the CaCCO process for ethanol production, and it is expected that integrated research from the feedstock to bioprocess may result in breakthroughs for commercialization.

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