• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.296-302
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• 2012

A bacterial strain was isolated from soybean paste fermented in a Korean Buddhist temple as a producer of the extracellular thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylase. The isolate YB-1234 has been identified as Bacillus licheniformis on the basis of its 16S rDNA sequence, morphology and biochemical properties. A gene encoding the thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylase of B. licheniformis YB-1234 was cloned into Escherichia coli and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of ${\alpha}$-amylase was very highly homologous to those of the thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylases of B. licheniformis belonging to the glycosyl hydrolase family 13. The ${\alpha}$-amylase produced by recombinant E. coli carrying the ${\alpha}$-amylase gene exhibited maximal activity at pH 6.0, identical to ${\alpha}$-amylase in the culture filtrate of B. licheniformis, while the temperature profile was somewhat different between the two. Particularly, ${\alpha}$-amylase produced from B. lcheniformis is much more thermostable than that from recombinant E. coli. The predominant products resulting from the ${\alpha}$-amylase hydrolysis were glucose, maltose and maltotriose for maltotetraose and maltohexaose.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2002

As inhibitors of carbohydrate-digesting enzymes can prevent hyperglycemia that is known to cause many macrovascular complications, they may prove a useful adjunct to hypocaloric diets in patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity. Inhibitory activities of two hundred and fifteen kinds of medicinal herb extracts against $\alpha$-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.20) and $\alpha$-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) have been investigated in vitro. Adenophora triphylla, Aneilema keisak, and Morus bombysis significantly suppressed rat intestinal $\alpha$-glucosidase activity iu vitro. Porcine pancreatic amylase was efficiently inhibited by methanol extracts of Epimedium koreanum, Campsis grandiflora and Salvia plebeia. Methanol extract of Epimedium koreanum among the medicinal herbs tested showed the strongest inhibitory activity against porcine pancreatic $\alpha$-amylase with 0.1 mg/ML of $IC_{50}$/. The herb extract also improved glucose tolerance in ICR mice when loaded with 0.9 g soluble starch per kg body weight. Taken together, Epimedium koreanum merits further evaluation as a therapeutic measure.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.31-36
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• 1981

Heavy metals which are present as trace elements in human body have been known to modify various enzymatic reaction. These metals can be essential or non-essential. Zinc, copper and calcium are essential in maintaining some biological processes, whereas non-essential metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury produce accumulatve toxic effect. Cadmium accumulated in pancreas can cause toxicity and damage of pancreatic cells, thereby influencing CHO metabolism. Lead compounds are known to produce toxic effects on the kidney, digestive system and brain fellowed by inhibition of activity of ${\rho}-aminolevulinic$ acid and biosynthesis of hemoproteins and cytochrome. Evidence has been accumulated that zinc not only acts as a cofactor in enzyme reaction but also prevents toxic effect induced by heavy metal such as copper and cadmium. To demonstrate the effect of heavy metals on pancreatic secretion, part of uncinate pancreas was taken and incubated in Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate buffer with heavy metals used. Additional treatment with CCK-OP was performed when needed. After incubation during different period of time, medium was analyzed for amylase activity using Bernfeld's method. The present study was attempted in order to elucidate the effect of several kinds of heavy metal on exocrine pancreatic secretion in vitro. The results obtained are as follows: 1) CCK-OP stimulated significantly amylase release from pancreatic fragments in vitro. 2) CCK-OP response of amylase release from pancreatic fragments was inhibited by treatmant with cadmium, especially high doses of cadmium. 3) CCK-OP response of amylase release from pancreatic fragments was inhibited when pretreated with $10^{-4}M$ copper chloride. 4) Lead chloride at the concentration of $10^{-3}M\;and\;10^{4}M$ stimulated the basal amylase release in vitro but CCK-OP response did not augment by lead chloride. 5) Zine chloride did not affect amylase release from pancreatic fragment in vitro. From the results mentioned above, it is suggested that CCK-OP response was inhibited it the amylase release from pancreatic fragments pretreated with cadmium and copper chloride.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.349-354
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• 1985

A 4.7 kb Hind III fragment containing $\alpha$-amylase gene of Bacillus stearothermophilus IAM 11062 was cloned in Escherichia coil HB101, using plasmid pBR322 and runaway plasmid pSY343 as a vector. The cloned gene was stably maintained and expressed In E.coli. The constructed strain of E. coli have at least 3 times higher amylase activity than the donor strain, of B. stearothermophilus. About 75％ of the $\alpha$-amylase produced by the constructed strain of E. coli was localized in the periplasm and it was found that the enzymes can be released by an osmotic shock using EDTA. The enzymatic properties of L-amylase produced in E. coli were very similar to those produced by B. stearothermophilus in terms of optimum temperature, heat stability and molecular weight.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2013

Thiol-ene polymerization is a versatile tool for several applications. Here we report the preparation of epoxide groups containing thiol-ene photocurable polymeric support and the covalent immobilization of ${\alpha}$-amylase onto these polymeric materials. The morphology of the polymeric support was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) coupled with SEM was used to explore the chemical composition. The polymeric support and the immobilization of the enzyme were characterized by FTIR analysis. SEM-EDS and FTIR results showed that the enzyme was successfully covalently attached to the polymeric support. The immobilization efficiency and enzyme activity of ${\alpha}$-amylase were examined at various pH (5.0-8.0) and temperature ($30-80^{\circ}C$) values. The storage stability and reusability of immobilized ${\alpha}$-amylase were investigated. The immobilization yield was $276{\pm}1.6$ mg per gram of polymeric support. Enzyme assays demonstrated that the immobilized enzyme exhibited better thermostability than the free one. The storage stability and reusability were improved by the immobilization on this enzyme support. Free enzyme lost its activity completely within 15 days. On the other hand, the immobilized enzyme retained 86.7% of its activity after 30 days. These results confirm that ${\alpha}$-amylase was successfully immobilized and gained a more stable character compared with the free one.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2000

Previously, we have reported that ${\rho}-chlorophenylalanine$ (PCPA), a serotonin depletor, profoundly increased pancreatic fluid and bicarbonate secretion but remarkably inhibited pancreatic amylase secretion in anesthetized rats. The present study was performed to verify the detailed effects of PCPA on pancreatic amylase synthesis that is directly related to amylase exocrine secretion. PCPA significantly decreased pancreatic RNA and protein contents as well as the amylase activity. However, pancreatic DNA content, trypsin and chymotrypsin activities were not influenced by the treatment of PCPA. The rate of pancreatic amylase synthesis, which was assessed by the amount of incorporated $[^{35}S]-methionine$ into amylase for 1 h, was also significantly decreased by 44% in PCPA-treated rats. In order to determine whether the PCPA-induced decrease of amylase synthesis resulted from change in the level of amylase mRNA, Northern blot analysis was performed. The mRNA expression level of amylase was also decreased by 48% in the PCPA-treated rats, indicating that the inhibitory effect of PCPA on the synthesis of pancreatic amylase was mainly regulated at a step prior to translation. It was also revealed in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis that the qualitative change of amylase was induced by PCPA. The 54 KDa amylase band seems to be degraded into small molecular weight protein bands in PCPA-treated rats, suggesting that the PCPA- induced decrease of amylase may be partly attributed to the degradation of synthesized amylase.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.333-338
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• 2013

Enzymatic activity in germinated cereal grains is important for the saccharification of starch materials. This study was conducted to investigate the amylolytic activities of germinating brown rice and black rice that have different amylose contents. Brown rice and black rice were steeped at room temperature for 24 h and germinated at 20 and $30^{\circ}C$ for 1, 2, and 3 days. ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-Amylase activities in normal brown rice increased very slightly during the 3-day germination period, but the enzymatic activities were slightly higher in low-amylose (waxy type) brown rice. Diastatic power (DP), a measure of starch-saccharifying enzyme, was higher in the germinating brown rice with low amylose than in those with normal amylose content. ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-Amylase activities in black rice increased gradually during germination, and DP of low-amylose black rice appeared to be higher than that of normal brown rice. Amylase activities in brown rice and black rice germinated at $30^{\circ}C$ were higher than those germinated at $20^{\circ}C$. Compared to brown rice, the overall amylolytic activity of germinated black rice was observed to be higher than that of brown rice.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.412-420
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• 1989

To know how the ribosomes involved in secretory protein synthesis were attached to the cytoplasmic membrane in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, the cells were treated with puromycin combinated with magnesium at the logarithmic phase, and the variation of cell-bound and extracellular $\alpha$-amylase activity was assayed for determining the $\alpha$-amylase translocation blocking through the cytoplasmic membrane. In the abnormal $\alpha$-amylase producing mutant in which the C-terminal of the $\alpha$-amylase structure was deleted, B. umytotiquefaciens CH10-2, the $\alpha$-amylase was translocated normally through the cytoplasmic membranes, and the translocation blocking by puromycin was revealed to have a similar pattern as that in the wild type. This means that the C-terminal part of the enzyme structure may not have a signal for secretion. The cell death of the logarithmic phase cells in both strains was not affected much under 20$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$ of puromycin, however, the $\alpha$-amylase translocation was blocked markedly under less than 10$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$ of the puromycin concentration. The blocking of the enzyme secretion by puromycin may be due to the detachment of the ribosomes from cytoplasmic membranes by disturbing the nascent polypeptide synthesis. Further evidence for confirming this was that the detachment was increased in 50 mM of magnesium ion because the extracellular $\alpha$-amylase activity was decreased more under this condition. If the cells were treated with trypsin combinated with Iysozyme, the extracellular $\alpha$-amylase activity from the cultured medium was reduced markedly, however, the activity from the cells treated with trypsin only was not reduced. This means that the nascent polypeptides protruding from the cytoplasmic membrane were sensitive to the trypsin digestion, whereas the matured ones were not. Therefore, the protruding polypeptides from the cytoplasmic membranes may be truncated by trypsin before forming their final tertiary structures by folding in the cell wall layer.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.311-316
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• 2007

In this study, the twenty-four ethyl acetate extracts of twenty-two medicinal plants, traditionally used in Vietnam as anti-diabetes agents, were investigated for ${\alpha}$-amylase and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) enzymes inhibitory activity in vitro. The results indicated that, twelve materials (50.0%) showed moderate to strong inhibitory activity in ${\alpha}$-amylase inhibitory activity with $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 2.5 to $48.8{\mu}g/mL$; meanwhile, ten extracts (41.6%) could demonstrate PTP1B activity with $IC_{50}$ values less than $30.5{\mu}g/mL$. Some plants presented interesting activities against both of ${\alpha}$-amylase and PTP1B enzymes such as Catharanthus roseus, Carthamus tinctorius, Momordica charantia, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Smilax glabra, Psidium guajava (leave), and Rehmannia glutinosa. The study may provide a proof, at least in a part, for the ethno-medical use in diabetes disease of these plants.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.232-236
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• 1992

In order to manufacture of soy paste, Changes of chemical composition and enzyme activity of soybean by different processing method were investigated. The results are summarized as follows: Changes of chemical compositions were; Raw(A) and soaked(B) soybeans contain about 2% of more crude fat than roasted(C) and steamed(D) soybeans, roasted and steamed soybeans contain $1.16{\sim}1.74%$ of more protein than those of raw and soaked soybeans, and Raw and roasted soybeans contain $0.11{\sim}0.41%$ of more crude fiber than those of soaked and steamed soybeans. ${\alpha}-amylase$, ${\beta}-amylase$, protease, lipase activity of raw and soaked soybeans were $2{\sim}5$ folds higher than those of roasted and steamed soybeans. Trypsin inhibitor activity of raw, soaked, roasted and steamed soybeans was indicated 56.7%, 42.9%, 32.9% and 20.8% in the order, respectively.