A variety of natural polymers such as biologically derived proteins, lipids, and functional polysaccharides are blended as materials for functionality and safety in beauty products. Of these natural polymers, we developed the polysaccharide curdlan (β-1, 3-glucan), which forms an irreversible gel through heating at a certain temperature or higher, as a beauty product material that has a hairstyling function of memorizing a hairstyle when heat from a dryer is applied. We also used a curdlan gel obtained by heating and appropriately molding this curdlan as a substitute for conductive adhesive paste that is generally used to secure electrodes for measuring brain waves to the scalp. On the other hand, in the research and development of beauty products, efforts are also actively underway to develop a technique to objectively evaluate the effectiveness and functionality of beauty products. We also realized a simple, high precision method that uses keratin film fabricated from a protein solution extracted from hair to detect initial hair degradation, which is ordinarily difficult to measure with high precision due to variations such as individual differences and damage history.

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An Aspergillus oryzae RIB40 (NBRC100959) α-glucosidase （designed as AgdB）gene (agdB) was expressed at high levels in an A. oryzae host by self-cloning. The obtained transformant (MIBA1002) produced intracellular and extracellular α-glucosidase at levels 3- and 10-fold higher, respectively, than the parent host strain. The base sequence of agdB consisted of a 3036-kb structural gene containing three introns and encoding 963 amino acids, and the linear sequence thus obtained from these amino acids was identical to A. oryzae RIB40 unknown protein BAE64257.1. The amino acid sequence had 72% and 51% homology to α-glucosidase B from Aspernillus nidulans and Acremonium implicatum, respectively, which exhibit transglycosylation activity. The sequence has conserved residues specific to glucosyl hydrase family 31 (GH31) α-glucosidases. Tyr296 present in the β→α Loop1 in GH31 is important for transglycosylation. The enzyme produced 2.2% isomaltose, 0.4% maltotriose, and 0.3% kojibiose from 20% maltose substrate. This is the first report of the transglycosylation activity of α-glucosidase B cloned in A. oryzae (unknown protein BAE64257.1).

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Biopterin (BP), which is structurally similar to flavin, is potentially associated with a UV-B photoreceptor yet to be identified. The stagnation of research on the BP-associated photoreceptor is because of the lack of a simple method to detect the protein that interacts with BP. We successfully immobilized BP by conducting a coupling reaction between one of the activated hydroxyl groups of BP and pre-introduced primary amino groups on the CM5 surface at a pH higher than usual. This enabled us to detect the protein that interacts with BP using Biacore measurements. The validity of the BP sensor chip was tested by applying the chip to fractions obtained by subjecting a crude extract of the paraflagellar body (PFB), which is the photosensory organelle of Euglena, to an anion exchange column; this test was performed because PFB was spectroscopically shown to contain a pterin binding protein. The BP sensor chip was useful to detect an unknown BP-binding protein in a crude sample.

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We developed a brewing method for rice and barley shochus, the main mash of which contains 3-times and 10-times more ethyl α-D-glucoside (α-EG), respectively, compared with that from conventional methods. The 2.5% α-EG extract prepared from a distillation residue of rice shochu was found to have a moisture-retaining effect.

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