Immobilization of invertase onto poly(3-methylthienyl methacrylate)/poly(3-thiopheneacetic acid) matrix

High sucrolytic activity by invertase immobilized onto magnetic diatomaceous earth nanoparticles

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Innovative biocatalyst with good properties to produce invert sugar.

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mDE-APTES-invertase showed 92.5% of residual specific activity.

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High sucrolytic activity (3358 U mg⁻¹ protein) by mDE-APTES-invertase was obtained.

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Remarkable results of thermal and storage stability, and reuse for mDE-APTES-invertase were found.

Invertase immobilized on magnetic diatomaceous earth nanoparticles (mDE-APTES-invertase) with high sucrolytic activity was obtained by an easy and low-cost method. An experimental design was carried out to investigate the best immobilization conditions and it allowed obtaining an immobilized derivative with a residual specific activity equal to 92.5%. Then, a second experimental design selected the mDE-APTES-invertase with higher specific activity in relation to other derivatives reported in the literature (2.42-fold). Thermal and storage stability for immobilized invertase were found to be 35 °C for 60 min (85% retained activity) and 120 days storage period (80% retained activity), respectively. Besides, a residual activity higher than 60% and 50% were observed for mDE-APTES-invertase after reuse in short and long term, respectively. Given the simple and efficient method to obtain an immobilized derivative with high activity, the mDE nanoparticles appear to be a promising matrix for invertase immobilization as well as for other biomolecules.

Conductive polythiophene-based brushes grafted from an ITO surface via a self-templating approach

Conductive polythiophene-based brushes grafted from an indium tin oxide substrate were fabricated as promising materials with directional conductivity feature for potential optoelectronic applications.

Invertase, glucose oxidase and catalase for converting sucrose to fructose and gluconic acid through batch and membrane-continuous reactors

Conversion of sucrose into fructose and gluconic acid using invertase, glucose oxidase and catalase was studied by discontinuous (sequential or simultaneous addition of the enzymes) and continuous (simultaneous addition of the enzymes in a 100 kDa-ultrafiltration membrane reactor) processes. The following parameters were varied: concentration of enzymes, initial concentration of substrates (sucrose and glucose), pH, temperature and feeding rate (for continuous process). The highest yield of conversion (100%) was attained through the discontinuous (batch) process carried out at pH 4.5 and 37 ºC by the sequential addition of invertase (14.3 U), glucose oxidase (10,000 U) and catalase (59,000 U).

Stabilization of invertase by molecular engineering

Extracellular invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was stabilized against thermal denaturation by intermolecular and intramolecular crosslinking of the surface nucleophilic functional groups with diisocyanate homobifunctional reagents (O==C==N(CH(2))(n)N==C==O) of various lengths (n = 4, 6, 8). Crosslinking with 1,4-diisocyanatobutane (n = 4) proved most effective in enhancing thermostability. Stability was improved dramatically by crosslinking 0.5 mg/mL of protein with 30 mumol/mL of the reagent. Molecular engineering by crosslinking reduced the first-order thermal denaturation constant at 60 degrees C from 1.567 min(-1) (for the native enzyme) to 0.437 min(-1) (for the stabilized enzyme). Similarly, the best crosslinking treatment increased the activation energy for denaturation from 391 kJ mol(-1) (for the native protein) to 466 kJ mol(-1) (for the stabilized enzyme). Crosslinking was confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.