Co-immobilization of dextransucrase and dextranase in epoxy-agarose- tailoring oligosaccharides synthesis

The best support reported for dextransucrase (DS) and dextranase (DN) immobilization was Eupergit C, but this carrier was discontinued and is no longer available in the market. Thus, epoxy-agarose support is suggested as an alternative to co-immobilize DS from Leuconostoc mesenteroides B-512F and DN from Chaetomium erraticum. The co-immobilization approach improved DS performance, compared to immobilized DS, due to the removal of the dextran layer accumulated on DS by DN, and enhanced both enzymes catalytic activities under a wide range of pH and temperature. Since DS and DN have the same optimum pH and temperature, the co-immobilization was done in a single step. The EPA-DS-DN0.5 (co-immobilized DS (26.16 UI) and DN (2.76 UI) in epoxy-agarose) showed the highest recovered activity (59.54%). The biocatalyst was stable at 4 degrees C, retaining above 70% of activity for 60 days and was efficient producing oligosaccharides, yielding 12.68 +/- 0.09 g/L of oligosaccharides with a degree of polymerization up to 5.