Two β-galactosidases, β-gal I and β-gal II, from Bifidobacterium breve DSM 20213, which was isolated from the intestine of an infant, were overexpressed in Escherichia coli with co-expression of the chaperones GroEL/GroES, purified to electrophoretic homogeneity and biochemically characterized. Both β-gal I and β-gal II belong to glycoside hydrolase family 2 and are homodimers with native molecular masses of 220 and 211 kDa, respectively. The optimum pH and temperature for hydrolysis of the two substrates o-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactopyranoside (oNPG) and lactose were determined at pH 7.0 and 50°C for β-gal I, and at pH 6.5 and 55°C for β-gal II, respectively. The k cat/K m values for oNPG and lactose hydrolysis are 722 and 7.4 mM−1s−1 for β-gal I, and 543 and 25 mM−1s−1 for β-gal II. Both β-gal I and β-gal II are only moderately inhibited by their reaction products D-galactose and D-glucose. Both enzymes were found to be very well suited for the production of galacto-oligosaccharides with total GOS yields of 33% and 44% of total sugars obtained with β-gal I and β-gal II, respectively. The predominant transgalactosylation products are β-D-Galp-(1→6)-D-Glc (allolactose) and β-D-Galp-(1→3)-D-Lac, accounting together for more than 75% and 65% of the GOS formed by transgalactosylation by β-gal I and β-gal II, respectively, indicating that both enzymes have a propensity to synthesize β-(1→6) and β-(1→3)-linked GOS. The resulting GOS mixtures contained relatively high fractions of allolactose, which results from the fact that glucose is a far better acceptor for galactosyl transfer than galactose and lactose, and intramolecular transgalactosylation contributes significantly to the formation of this disaccharide.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) are prominent among the functional components of human breast milk. While HMO have potential applications in both infants and adults, this potential is limited by the difficulties in manufacturing these complex structures. Consequently, functional alternatives such as galacto-oligosaccharides are under investigation, and nowadays, infant formulae are supplemented with galacto-oligosaccharides to mimic the biological effects of HMO. Recently, approaches toward the production of defined human milk oligosaccharide structures using microbial, fermentative methods employing single, appropriately engineered microorganisms were introduced. Furthermore, galactose-containing hetero-oligosaccharides have attracted an increasing amount of attention because they are structurally more closely related to HMO. The synthesis of these novel oligosaccharides, which resemble the core of HMO, is of great interest for applications in the food industry.

a b s t r a c tA recently proposed coenzyme regeneration system employing laccase and a number of various redox mediators for the oxidation of NAD(P)H was studied in detail by kinetic characterization of individual reaction steps. Reaction engineering by modeling was used to optimize the employed enzyme, coenzyme as well as redox mediator concentrations. Glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus sp. served as a convenient model of synthetic enzymes that depend either on NAD + or NADP + . The suitability of laccase from Trametes pubescens in combination with acetosyringone or syringaldazine as redox mediator was tested for the regeneration (oxidation) of both coenzymes. In a first step, pH profiles and catalytic constants of laccase for the redox mediators were determined. Then, second-order rate constants for the oxidation of NAD(P)H by the redox mediators were measured. In a third step, the rate equation for the entire enzymatic process was derived and used to build a MATLAB model. After verifying the agreement of predicted vs. experimental data, the model was used to calculate different scenarios employing varying concentrations of regeneration system components. The modeled processes were experimentally tested and the results compared to the predictions. It was found that the regeneration of NADH to its oxidized form was performed very efficiently, but that an excess of laccase activity leads to a high concentration of the oxidized form of the redox mediator -a phenoxy radical -which initiates coupling (dimerization or polymerization) and enzyme deactivation.