• KSBB Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 1990

Enzymatic hydrolysis of insoluble cellulose was performed in a bubble column with tangential flow ulrafiltration membrane unit. The reactor was operated in a batch mode as well as semi-continuous and continuous with continuous removal of products through the tangential flow ultrafiltration membrane. The optimum superficial gas velocity was 1-3cm / sec so as to avoid bubble coalescence and enzyme denaturation. In continuous and selni-cotinuous process, the conversion was gradually increased but the total reduced sugar concentration was drcastically dereased with the dilution rate. It was concluded that the bubble column attaching tangential flow ultrafiltration membrane unit was effective on continuous hydrolysis of cellulose and recovery of enzyme.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.983-989
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• 2008

Human insulin is a hormone well-known to regulate the blood glucose level. Recombinant preproinsulin, a precursor of authentic insulin, is typically produced in E. coli as an inactive inclusion body, the solubilization of which needs the addition of reducing agents such as $\beta$-mercaptoethanol. To make authentic insulin, recombinant preproinsulin is modified enzymatically by trypsin and carboxypeptidase B. The effects of $\beta$-mercaptoethanol on the formation of human insulin derivatives were investigated in the enzymatic modification by using commercially available human proinsulin as a substrate. Addition of 1 mM $\beta$-mercaptoethanol induced the formation of various insulin derivatives. Among them, the second major one, impurity 3, was found to be identical to the insulin B chain fragment from $Phe_1$ to $Glu_{21}$. Minimization of the formation of insulin derivatives and concomitant improvement of the production yield of human insulin were achieved by the addition of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide bound with $\beta$-mercaptoethanol and thereby reduced the negative effects of $\beta$-mercaptoethanol considerably. Elimination of the impurity 3 and other derivatives by the addition of over 10 mM hydrogen peroxide in the presence of $\beta$-mercaptoethanolled to a 1.3-fold increase in the recovery efficiency of insulin, compared with those for the case without hydrogen peroxide. The positive effects of hydrogen peroxide were also confirmed with recombinant human preproinsulin expressed in recombinant E. coli as an inclusion body.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1905-1911
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• 2020

Homoserine dehydrogenase (HSD) catalyzes the reversible conversion of ʟ-aspartate-4-semialdehyde to ʟ-homoserine in the aspartate pathway for the biosynthesis of lysine, methionine, threonine, and isoleucine. HSD has attracted great attention for medical and industrial purposes due to its recognized application in the development of pesticides and is being utilized in the large scale production of ʟ-lysine. In this study, HSD from Bacillus subtilis (BsHSD) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity for biochemical characterization. We examined the enzymatic activity of BsHSD for ʟ-homoserine oxidation and found that BsHSD exclusively prefers NADP+ to NAD+ and that its activity was maximal at pH 9.0 and in the presence of 0.4 M NaCl. By kinetic analysis, Km values for ʟ-homoserine and NADP+ were found to be 35.08 ± 2.91 mM and 0.39 ± 0.05 mM, respectively, and the Vmax values were 2.72 ± 0.06 μmol/min-1 mg-1 and 2.79 ± 0.11 μmol/min-1 mg-1, respectively. The apparent molecular mass determined with size-exclusion chromatography indicated that BsHSD forms a tetramer, in contrast to the previously reported dimeric HSDs from other organisms. This novel oligomeric assembly can be attributed to the additional C-terminal ACT domain of BsHSD. Thermal denaturation monitoring by circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to determine its melting temperature, which was 54.8℃. The molecular and biochemical features of BsHSD revealed in this study may lay the foundation for future studies on amino acid metabolism and its application for industrial and medical purposes.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.18-25
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• 1987

The cellulolytic activities of Aspergillus fumigatus KC-1 was investigated, which showed the most active producer of cellulase among the 256 strains of cellulose-decomposing microorganisms screened in our laboratory. All the examined cellulolytic activities (filter paper-, Avicel-, cotton-, CMC-, salicin- and xylansaccharifying activity) in a culture of A. fumigatus KC-1 grown on 1% popular sawdust pretreated with peroxide alkaline reached a maximum within 4-5 days. The optimum pH and temperature for the enzymatic activity was found to be pH 4.5 and $60^{\circ}C$ respectively. The sawdust of poplar wood delignified with 1% NaOH and 20% peracetic acid succesively recorded the highest hydrolysis rate in the tests of enzymatic saccharification. The major end product of hydrolysis of poplar wood with the cellulolytic enzymes obtained from A. fumigatus KC-1 was glucose with small amount of cellobiose and xylose. It can be concluded from these results that A. fumigatus KC-1 is an advantagous source of a cellulase that is capable of hydrolyzing cellulose to glucose rapidly. The influence of degree of delignification, substrate size and its concentration on the rate of hydrolysis of poplar wood was also discussed.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1477-1486
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• 2016

Lactulose (4-O-${\beta}$-D-galactopyranosyl-D-fructose) is a non-digestible synthetic ketose disaccharide which can used in food and pharmaceutical fields due to its useful functions for encephalopathy, chronic constipation, hyperammonemia, etc. Therefore, the lactulose is regarded as one of the most important disaccharides and have been concentrated much interesting as an attractive functional material in the current industry. From this reason, the research related on the production of lactulose has been carried out various academic and industrial research groups. To produce lactulose, two main methods, chemical production and enzymatic production have been used. Commercially lactulose produced by alkaline isomerization of lactose as chemical production method but it has many disadvantages such as rapid lactulose degradation, purification, and waste management. From these reasons, lactulose produced by enzymatic method which solves these problems has been suggested as a proper method for lactulose production. Two different enzymatic methods have been reported as methods for lactulose production. Lactulose can be obtained through hydrolysis and transfer reaction catalyzed by a ${\beta}$-galactosidase which requires fructose as co-substrate and exhibits a low conversion. Alternatively, lactulose can be produced by direct isomerization of lactose to lactulose catalyzed by cellobiose 2-epimerase which requires lactose as a single substrate and achieves a high lactulose yield. This review summarizes the current state of lactulose production by chemical and biological methods.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.222-228
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• 2003

This study was performed to research a chemo-enzymatic synthesis of sorbitan acrylate. It w as firstly to determine the optimum conditions for D-sorbitol cyclic reaction in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TSA) as catalyst material. It was secondly to find the optimum conditions for sorbitan acrylate synthesis using immobilized lipase Novozym 435 in t-butanol from its materials. The maximum yield of 1,4-sorbitan synthesis were obtained approximately 90% (w/w) at 13$0^{\circ}C$ and 200 mmHg vacuum pressure with 1% (w/w) p-TSA after 150 min reactin time on our experimental system. The product from optimum condition was less color than those obtained at higher temperatures and minimized byproduct and unreacted D-sorbitol. Sorbitan acrylate was synthesized to around 63.5% conversion of 1,4-sorbitan. The experimental optimum condition was found at 5$0^{\circ}C$, atmospheric pressure, 3% (w/v) Novozym 435, 50 g/L 1,4-sorbitan of initial reactant concentration, and 1:3 molar ratio of 1,4-sorbitan to acrylic acid.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2009

Yellow poplar was selected a promising biomass resources for bio-ethanol production through alkali prehydrolysis, enzymatic saccharification and fermentation using commercial cellulase mixtures (Celluclast 1.5L and Novozym 342 mixtures) and fermenting yeast. In alkali prehydrolysis, 51.1% of Yellow poplar biomass remained as residues, which chemical compositions were 82.2% of cellulose, 17.6% of xylan and 2.0% of lignin. In alkali prehydrolysis process, 96.9% of cellulose, 38.0% of xylan and 5.7% of lignin were remained. Enzymatic saccharification by commercial cellulases led to 87.0% of cellulose to glucose and 87.2% of xylan to xylose conversion. Produced glucose and xylose were fermented with fermenting yeast (Saccharomycess cerevisiae), which resulted in selective fermentation of glucose only to bio-ethanol. Residual monosaccharides after fermentation were consisted to 0.4-1.4% of glucose and 92.1-99.5% of xylose. Ethanol concentration was highest for 24 h fermentation as 57.2 g/L, but gradually decreased to 56.2 g/L for 48 h fermentation and 54.3 g/L for 72 h fermentation, due to the ethanol consumption by fermenting yeast.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 2012

Since D-xylose is not fermentable in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, its conversion to D-xylulose is required for its application in biotechnological industries using S. cerevisiae. In order to convert D-xylose to D-xylulose by way of an enzyme immobilized system, D-xylose isomerase (XI) of Escherichia coli was fused with 10-arginine tag (R10) at its C-terminus for the simple purification and immobilization process using a cation exchanger. The fusion protein XIR10 was overexpressed in recombinant E. coli and purified to a high purity by a single step of cation exchange chromatography. The purified XIR10 was immobilized to a cation exchanger via the electrostatic interaction with the C-terminal 10-arginine tag. Both the free and immobilized XIR10 exhibited similar XI activities at various pH values and temperatures, indicating that the immobilization to the cation exchanger has a small effect on the enzymatic function of XIR10. Under optimized conditions for the immobilized XIR10, D-xylose was isomerized to D-xylulose with a conversion yield of 25%. Therefore, the results of this study clearly demonstrate that the electrostatic immobilization of XIR10 via the interaction between the 10-arginine tag and a cation exchanger is an applicable form of the conversion of D-xylose to D-xylulose.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 1992

The synthesis of N-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester(ZAPM), a precursor of aspartame, from N-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-aspartic acid(Z-Asp) and L-phenylalanine methyl ester hydrochloride(L-PM-HCl) was investigated in ethylacetate-MES buffer two-phase system using thermolysin. In organic two-phase system, the degree of spontaneous hydrolysis of L-PM. HCl was significantly reduced with increasing the volume ratio of organic to aqueous phase. Stability of thermolysin in organic two-phase system was found to be higher than that in MES buffer solution. More than 90% of initial enzyme activity was maintained after 10 days of incubation in case that the volume of organic phase was equal to that of buffer phase, while the half life of thermolysin was about 2 days in aqueous buffer solution. The results of partitioning of substrates and product in organic two-phase system showed that the difference in partition coefficients between substrates and product was maximum at pH 5.5. The optimal pH for 2-APM synthesis in organic two-phase system was found to be 5.5-5.8, which is consistent with the value expected from the partition experiments. As the concentration of substrates was increased the conversion yield of Z-APM was increased with concomitant reduction of L-PMqHC1 hydrolysis. In case that the concentration of L-PM-HCl and Z-Asp were 160 mM and 80 mM respectively, the conversion yield of Z-APM reached 90% after 28 hrs of reaction. The yield obtained at different volume ratio of organic phase compares well with the predicted equilibrium constant in biphasic system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1427-1437
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• 2014

Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars is a key step in the conversion of agricultural by-products to biofuels and value-added chemicals. Utilization of a robust microorganism for on-site production of biomass-degrading enzymes has gained increasing interest as an economical approach for supplying enzymes to biorefinery processes. In this study, production of multi-polysaccharide-degrading enzymes from Aspergillus aculeatus BCC199 by solid-state fermentation was improved through the statistical design approach. Among the operational parameters, yeast extract and soybean meal as well as the nonionic surfactant Tween 20 and initial pH were found as key parameters for maximizing production of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes. Under the optimized condition, the production of FPase, endoglucanase, ${\beta}$-glucosidase, xylanase, and ${\beta}$-xylosidase was achieved at 23, 663, 88, 1,633, and 90 units/g of dry substrate, respectively. The multi-enzyme extract was highly efficient in the saccharification of alkaline-pretreated rice straw, corn cob, and corn stover. In comparison with commercial cellulase preparations, the BCC199 enzyme mixture was able to produce remarkable yields of glucose and xylose, as it contained higher relative activities of ${\beta}$-glucosidase and core hemicellulases (xylanase and ${\beta}$-xylosidase). These results suggested that the crude enzyme extract from A. aculeatus BCC199 possesses balanced cellulolytic and xylanolytic activities required for the efficient saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks, and supplementation of external ${\beta}$-glucosidase or xylanase was dispensable. The work thus demonstrates the high potential of A. aculeatus BCC199 as a promising producer of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes for the biomass conversion industry.