Enhancement of α- and β-Galactosidase Activity in Lactobacillus reuteri by Different Metal Ions

Abstract

The hydrolysis of oligosaccharides and lactose is of great importance to the food industry. Normally, oligosaccharides like raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose which are rich in different plants like soy bean are considered indigestible by the human gut. Moreover, many humans suffer from lactose intolerance due to the absence of effective enzyme that can digest lactose. alpha-Galactosidase can digest oligosaccharides like raffinose, while beta-galactosidases can hydrolyze lactose. Therefore, selection of microorganisms safe for human use and capable of producing high levels of enzymes becomes an attractive task. The objective of this study was to investigate the enhancement of alpha- and beta-galactosidase activity in Lactobacillus reuteri by different metal ions. Ten millimolar of Na(+), K(+), Fe(2+), and Mg(2+) and 1 mM of Mn(2+) were added separately to the growth culture of six strains of L. reuteri (CF2-7F, DSM20016, MF14-C, MM2-3, MM7, and SD2112). Results showed that L. reuteri CF2-7F had the highest alpha- and beta-galactosidase activity when grown in the medium with added Mn(2+) ions (22.7 and 19.3 Gal U/ml, respectively). 0.0274% of Mn(2+) ions lead to 27, 18% enhancement of alpha- and beta-galactosidase activity over the control group, and therefore, it could be added to the growth culture of CF2-7F to produce enhanced levels of alpha- and beta-galactosidase activity. The addition of Fe(2+) led to a significant (P < 0.01) decrease in the activity of both enzymes for most strains. This study shows that modified culture medium with that 0.0274% Mn(2+) can be used to promote the production for alpha- and beta-galactosidase in L. reuteri CF2-7F, which may lead to enhancement of alpha- and beta-galactosidase activity and have a good potential to be used in the food industry.

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“…Probiotics can also contribute to human health by improving the immune system and the functionality of the gastrointestinal tract against pathogenic organisms without causing any adverse effects on the host [4][5][6]. Probiotics have a direct impact on digestion, which also increases the nutritional value of all food products [3,7]. However, the aging process may affect human gut microflora composition and functionality [1,8].…”

Enzymatic activity of Lactobacillus reuteri grown in a sweet potato based medium with the addition of metal ions

“…Species of Lactobacillus that produce functional enzymes such as α -glucosidase, β -glucosidase, acid phosphatase, and phytase could have an important impact on human health. However, the production capacity of such hydrolyzing enzymes by Lactobacillus is strain specific (Bury et al 2001; Ibrahim et al 2010; Palacios et al 2007; Zotta et al 2009; Zotta et al 2007). Lactobacillus reuteri is known to inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals (Casas and Dobrogosz 2000).…”

“…L. reuteri is a special probiotic species since the entire species has been shown to exhibit efficient probiotic functionality (Casas and Dobrogosz 2000) and to produce different functional enzymes (Alazzeh et al 2009). L. reuteri exhibit high activity of α -galactosidase and β -galactosidase (Ibrahim et al 2010). Strains of L. reuteri have high activity of α -glucosidase (Kralj et al 2005) and β -glucosidase (Otieno et al 2005).…”

“…However, the enzymatic activity of Lactobacillus can be affected by their nutritional requirements such as vitamins metal ions, sugars, and protein (Alazzeh et al 2009; Hayek and Ibrahim 2013; Ibrahim et al 2010; Mahajan et al 2010; Palacios et al 2005). Nevertheless, even though the nutritional requirements of Lactobacillus have been established, controlling, optimizing, and maximizing the enzymatic activity of Lactobacillus have many limitations and challenges (Hayek and Ibrahim 2013).…”

Disulfide Bond Formation and Activation of Escherichia coli β-Galactosidase under Oxidizing Conditions

“…E. coli ␤-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) forms a tetramer and has been one of the most widely used reporter enzymes for many applications, such as analysis of the regulation of gene expression, characterization of protein function/structure, and analysis of target gene expression (6,48). On the other hand, bacterial ␤-galac-tosidases also have enormous potential in the food industry (14,16). Moreover, ␤-galactosidase can hydrolyze not only lactose, resulting in glucose and galactose, but also other substrates, yielding colored products, thus making the enzyme a suitable reporter for the applications mentioned.…”