A simple and efficient method for the purification of membrane-bound levansucrase from Zymomonas mobilis

Effect of bacteria type and sucrose concentration on levan yield and its molecular weight

BACKGROUND

Levan has been traditionally produced from microorganism. However, there is a continuous effort in looking for new strains that improve levan production yield and uses alternative sugar sources for growth. Despite having a wide range of data about levan yield, there are not papers which allow controlling molecular weight, and that plays an essential role for further applications.

RESULTS

The effect of the sucrose concentration on levan yield (and its molecular weight) from Bacillus atrophaeus and Acinetobacter nectaris (Gram positive and Gram negative respectively) was studied in this work. It was found that A. nectaris growth (from 3 to 1.5 g L^-1 in 40 h) and its levan production (from 3 to 1.5 g L^-1) decreases by increasing sucrose concentration (best results at a concentration of 120 g L^-1) whereas B. atrophaeus growth (3.5 g L^-1 in 30 h) and its levan production (also 3.5 g L^-1) were not affected by modifying that parameter. Levan molecular weight from A. nectaris decreases by increasing sucrose concentration (from 8000 to 2000 kDa) whereas levan molecular weight from B. Atrophaeus remains always around 50 kDa. By performing a kinetic study, it was shown that A. nectaris growth follows a substrate-inhibition model, whereas Monod equation provided a good fit for B. atrophaeus growth. Finally, wastes from orange juice industry were used as a medium culture to cultivate those microorganism, obtaining good results with B. atrophaeus (growth 3 g L^-1 in 30 h).

CONCLUSIONS

Levan production kinetics was determined and compared between different bacteria types.

Properties of Geobacillus stearothermophilus levansucrase as potential biocatalyst for the synthesis of levan and fructooligosaccharides

The production of levansucrase (LS) by thermophilic Geobacillus stearothermophilus was investigated. LS production was more effective in the presence of sucrose (1%, w/v) than fructose, glucose, glycerol or raffinose. The results (Top 57°C; stable for 6 h at 47°C) indicate the high stability of the transfructosylation activity of G. stearothermophilus LS as compared with LSs from other microbial sources. Contrary to temperature, the pH had a significant effect on the selectivity of G. stearothermophilus LS-catalyzed reaction, favoring the transfructosylation reaction in the pH range of 6.0-6.5. The kinetic parameter study revealed that the catalytic efficiency of transfructosylation activity was higher as compared with the hydrolytic one. In addition to levan, G. stearothermophilus LS synthesized fructooligosaccharides in the presence of sucrose as the sole substrate. The results also demonstrated the wide acceptor specificity of G. stearothermophilus LS with maltose being the best fructosyl acceptor. This study is the first on the catalytic properties and the acceptor specificity of LS from G. stearothermophilus.

An influence of ethanol and temperature on products formation by different preparations of Zymomonas mobilis extracellular levansucrase

The ethanol and temperature effects on the ratio between Zymomonas mobilis 113S extracellular levansucrase activities were studied using fermentation broth supernatant, "levan-levansucrase" sediment precipitated by ethanol and highly purified enzyme. The fructooligosaccharide (FOS) production at different temperatures in the presence of ethanol was investigated. An ethanol increases FOS biosynthesis activity part of levansucrase. Especially, this effect was pronounced at lower temperatures (35-40 °C) and using purified levansucrase. The inverse relationship between temperature and ratio synthetic activity/total activity of levansucrase was found. The FOS composition containing mostly 1-kestose, 6-kestose, and neokestose obtained in the presence of different ethanol concentrations was found relative constant, while the changes in the sucrose concentration and temperature gave slight changes in the ratio between 1-kestose and 6-kestose.