Enzymic synthesis of useful chito-oligosaccharides utilizing transglycosylation by chitinolytic enzymes in a buffer containing ammonium sulfate

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0008-6215(90)80046-6

A chitinase purified from culture filtrates of Trichoderma reesei KDR-11 efficiently catalyzed a transglycosylation reaction on tetra-N-acetylchitotetraoside in a buffer medium containing ammonium sulfate, converting the tetrasaccharide into hexa-N-acetylchitohexaose (39.6percent) and di-N-acetylchitobiose (55.7percent) as major products.Sugar-chain elongation from di-N-acetylchitobiose as the initial substrate to hexa-N-acetyl-chitohexaose and hepta-N-acetylchitoheptaose was also efficiently induced through lysozyme catalysis in the presence of ammonium sulfate at high (30percent) concentration.In this case, the addition of ammonium sulfate to the reaction system resulted in a remarkable increase of the hexamer and heptamer productions, which are desirable as biologically active oligosaccharides.