Mannohexaose

Microarrays are powerful tools for high throughput analysis, and hundreds or thousands of molecular interactions can be assessed simultaneously using very small amounts of analytes. Nucleotide microarrays are well established in plant research, but carbohydrate microarrays are much less established, and one reason for this is a lack of suitable glycans with which to populate arrays. Polysaccharide microarrays are relatively easy to produce because of the ease of immobilizing large polymers noncovalently onto a variety of microarray surfaces, but they lack analytical resolution because polysaccharides often contain multiple distinct carbohydrate substructures. Microarrays of defined oligosaccharides potentially overcome this problem but are harder to produce because oligosaccharides usually require coupling prior to immobilization. We have assembled a library of well characterized plant oligosaccharides produced either by partial hydrolysis from polysaccharides or by de novo chemical synthesis. Once coupled to protein, these neoglycoconjugates are versatile reagents that can be printed as microarrays onto a variety of slide types and membranes. We show that these microarrays are suitable for the high throughput characterization of the recognition capabilities of monoclonal antibodies, carbohydrate-binding modules, and other oligosaccharide-binding proteins of biological significance and also that they have potential for the characterization of carbohydrate-active enzymes.

Mycotoxins are the secondary fungal metabolites generally produced by wide range of fungi including aflatoxins (AF), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisins (FB), zearalenone (ZEN), and deoxynivalenol (DON). Nowadays, they are main concern to food and agricultural commodities due to undesirable health and socio-economic effect. This investigation was designed to synthesized microcapsules loaded the bioactive compounds of date seed and evaluated its inhibitory activities in mice received mold-contaminated diet. The finding revealed that the developed microcapsule is homogenous and mostly spherical with size of 2.58 µm with acceptable PDI of 0.21. The main phytochemical has been confirmed by HPLC analysis were xylose, fructose, mannose, glucose and galactose with the respective values of 41.95, 2.24, 5.27 and 0.169 percent. The invivo analyses manifested that the mice received date seed microcapsules significantly (p < 0.05) improved the average daily weight gain, feed intake, liver enzymes (ALT, ALP and AST) and lipid peroxidation values compare to mice group received mycotoxin-contaminated diet. Furthermore, encapsulation date seed bioactive compounds notably up-regulated the expression of GPx, SOD, IFN-γ and IL-2 genes while down-regulated the iNOS gene. Consequently, the novel microcapsules loaded date seed is suggested to considered as a promising mycotoxin inhibitor.

The study of specific glycan uptake and metabolism is an effective tool in aiding with the continued unravelling of the complexities in the human gut microbiome. To this aim fluorescent labelling of glycans may provide a powerful route towards this target. Here, we successfully used the fluorescent label 2-aminobenzamide (2-AB) to monitor and study microbial degradation of labelled glycans. Both single strain and co-cultured fermentations of microbes from the common human-gut derived Bacteroides genus, are able to grow when supplemented with 2-AB labelled glycans of different monosaccharide composition, degrees of acetylation and polymerization. Utilizing a multifaceted approach that combines chromatography, mass spectrometry, microscopy and flow cytometry techniques, it is possible to better understand the metabolism of labelled glycans in both supernatants and at a single cell level. We envisage this combination of complementary techniques will help further the understanding of substrate specificity and the role it plays within microbial communities.

This study aimed to produce manno-oligosaccharides (MOS) from Gleditsia microphylla galactomannans (GMG) using CO₂ and solid acid (Amberlyst-35) in subcritical water. The optimal condition for MOS preparation was 3 MPa CO₂, 0.1 g/g solid acid (relative to GMG) at 150°C for 40 min. The maximum MOS yield with a degree of polymerization from 2 to 4 (M₂-M₄) was 52.19%, which doubled the yield of MOS compared to either using solely CO₂ or solid acid. Solid acid showed excellent performance in producing MOS under subcritical H₂O-CO₂ condition, due to the enhanced mass transfer efficiency and increased H⁺ concentration in the reaction system. The solid acid can be easily separated and reused. Comparing with traditional methods used to produce MOS, this approach has many merits such as higher galactomannan hydrolysis efficiency (largely reduced time and higher MOS yield), purer M₂-M₄ product, lower costs, and more environmental-friendly.

Retaining β-mannanases are glycoside hydrolases (GHs) that can potentially be applied for synthesis of glycosides by catalysis of transglycosylation reactions. A novel active-site double mutant (R171K/E205D) of the catalytic module (CM) of the family GH5 Trichoderma reesei β-mannanase (TrMan5A) was expressed in Pichia pastoris and purified. TrMan5A, CM and CM-variants R171K and R171K/E205D had pH optima between pH 4.0-5.3 and showed >80% remaining activity after incubation at 40°C for 48 h. The enzymes were screened for transglycosylation capacity toward oligomeric and polymeric donor substrates and alcohol acceptors using mass-spectrometry. Hydrolysis and transglycosylation products were analysed by a novel HPLC procedure using an NH₂ column. R171K/E205D was superior in reactions with mannotetraose and the acceptor allyl alcohol, it had twice as high propensity for transglycosylation as wild-type TrMan5A. Wild-type TrMan5A produced the highest amounts of allyl β-mannosides (with 1-3 mannosyls) from locust bean galactomannan. Applying enzyme synergy, adding the GH27 guar α-galactosidase to the reaction (to cleave off galactomannan side-groups), gave a 2.1-fold increase of allyl mannosides and simultaneously a significant production of allyl galactopyranoside, increasing overall yield of allyl glycosides 4.4-fold, from 2.2% to 9.8%. The enzymatic synthesis of reactive allyl glycosides opens up for production of novel biomaterials and glycopolymers.

In this study, a GH26 endo-mannanase (Man26A) from an Aspergillus niger ATCC 10864 strain, with a molecular mass of 47.8 kDa, was cloned in a yBBH1 vector and expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y294 strain cells. Upon fractionation by ultra-filtration, the substrate specificity and substrate degradation pattern of the endo-mannanase (Man26A) were investigated using ivory nut linear mannan and two galactomannan substrates with varying amounts of galactosyl substitutions, guar gum and locust bean gum. Man26A exhibited substrate specificity in the order: locust bean gum ≥ ivory nut mannan > guar gum; however, the enzyme generated more manno-oligosaccharides (MOS) from the galactomannans than from linear mannan during extended periods of mannan hydrolysis. MOS with a DP of 2–4 were the major products from mannan substrate hydrolysis, while guar gum also generated higher DP length MOS. All the Man26A generated MOS significantly improved the growth (approximately 3-fold) of the probiotic bacterial strains Streptococcus thermophilus and Bacillus subtilis in M9 minimal medium. Ivory nut mannan and locust bean gum derived MOS did not influence the auto-aggregation ability of the bacteria, while the guar gum derived MOS led to a 50 % reduction in bacterial auto-aggregation. On the other hand, all the MOS significantly improved bacterial biofilm formation (approximately 3-fold). This study suggests that the prebiotic characteristics exhibited by MOS may be dependent on their primary structure, i.e. galactose substitution and DP. Furthermore, the data suggests that the enzyme-generated MOS may be useful as potent additives to dietary foods.

Here, we report an efficient endoglucanase from Aureobasidium pullulans (termed ApCel5A) was expressed in Pichia pastoris. ApCel5A shows two different enzyme activities of endoglucanase (1270 U/mg) and mannanase (31.2 U/mg). Through engineering the signal peptide and fed-batch fermentation, the enzyme activity of endoglucanase was improved to 6.63-folds, totally. Its efficient synergism with Celluclast 1.5 L, excellent tolerance to low pH (2.5), cholate and protease suggests potential application in bioresources, food and feed industries. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments present that ApCel5A residues Glu²⁴⁵ and Glu³⁵⁸ are key catalytic sites, while Asp¹¹⁸, Asp¹²², Asp¹⁹⁸ and Asp³¹⁴ play an auxiliary role. More importantly, ApCel5A display high degradation efficiency of glucan and glucomannan substrates by using tetrasaccharide contained reducing end of glucose residue as an intermediate. This study elucidated the effective methods to improve an endoglucanase expression and detailed catalytic mechanism for degradation of various substrates, which provides a new insight for endoglucanase application.

Mannooligosaccharides (MOSs) are one of the most commonly used biomass-derived feed additives. The effectiveness of MOS varies with the length of oligosaccharides, medium length MOSs such as mannotetraose and mannopentaose being the most efficient. This study aims at improving specificity of β-mannanase from Aspergillus niger toward the desirable product size through rational-based enzyme engineering. Tyr 42 and Tyr 132 were mutated to Gly to extend the substrate binding site, allowing higher molecular weight MOS to non-catalytically bind to the enzyme. Hydrolysis product content was analyzed by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. Instead of mannobiose, the enzyme variants yielded mannotriose and mannotetraose as the major products, followed by mannobiose and mannopentaose. Overall, 42% improvement in production yield of highly active mannotetraose and mannopentaose was achieved. This validates the use of engineered β-mannanase to selectively produce larger MOS, making them promising candidates for large-scale MOS enzymatic production process.

β-mannanase with high specific activity is a prerequisite for the industrial preparation of prebiotic mannooligosaccharides. Three mutants, namely MEI, MER, and MEIR, were constructed by cooperative substitution based on three predominant single-point site mutations (K291E, L211I, and Q112R, respectively). Heterologous expression was facilitated in Pichia pastoris and the recombinase was characterized completely. The specific activities of MER (7481.9 U mg⁻¹) and MEIR (9003.1 U mg⁻¹) increased by 1.07- and 1.29-fold from the initial activity of ME (6970.2U mg⁻¹), respectively. MEIR was used for high-cell-density fermentation to further improve enzyme activity, and the expression levels achieved in the 10-L fermenter were significantly high (105,836 U mL⁻¹). The prebiotic mannooligosaccharides (< 2000 Da) were prepared by hydrolyzing konjac gum and locust bean gum with MEIR, with 100% and 76.40% hydrolysis rates, respectively. These characteristics make MEIR highly attractive for prebiotic development in food and related industries.

The endo-β-1,4-mannanase from the hyperthermostable bacterium Thermotoga petrophila (TpMan) is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of mannan and heteromannan polysaccharides. Of the three domains that comprise TpMan, the N-terminal GH5 catalytic domain and the C-terminal carbohydrate-binding domain are connected through a central ancillary domain of unknown structure and function. In this study, we report the partial crystal structure of the TpMan at 1.45 Å resolution, so far, the first modular hyperthermostable endo-β-1,4-mannanase structure determined. The structure exhibits two domains, a (β/α)8-barrel GH5 catalytic domain connected via a linker to the central domain with an immunoglobulin-like β-sandwich fold formed of seven β-strands. Functional analysis showed that whereas the immunoglobulin-like domain does not have the carbohydrate-binding function, it stacks on the GH5 catalytic domain acting as a thermostabilizing domain and allowing operation at hyperthermophilic conditions. The carbohydrate-binding domain is absent in the crystal structure most likely due to its high flexibility around the immunoglobulin-like domain which may act also as a pivot. These results represent new structural and functional information useful on biotechnological applications for biofuel and food industries.