Abstract:
The aims of this research were to study genetic diversity of amylolytic enzyme
encoding genes and characterize amylolytic enzyme from Lactobacillus plantarum. A
total of 124 amylolytic lactic acid bacteria isolated from fruits, vegetables, dairy
products, cereals, and fermented starches were screened for the highest amylolytic
enzyme and acid producing strains. The results showed that, Weissella sp. FPT2
exhibited the highest amylolytic activity of 11.56 U/mL and L. fermenturn V3R could
produce the highest lactic acid of 3.31 % (w/v). The study of amylolytic enzyme
encoding genes distribution among L. platarum, which has been reported to have high
amylolytic genes diversity, revealed that amyl, amy2, agl3, and agl4 genes were the
most frequently found in L. plantarum isolates. Sequence analysis and alignment of
PCR products revealed no homology between amy 1, amyA, and amy 2 genes, however,
three conserved amino acids were observed in the catalytic domain. No sequence
homology was also observed among agl genes. The molecular weights of the purified
amylolytic enzymes from L. plantarum strain F17R and S7R using a starch - celite
column were estimated as 55 kDa and 51 kDa, respectively. The optimum pH and
temperature for amylolytic activity of strain F17R were 7.0 and 45 C, respectively, and
of strain S7R were pH 6.0 and 30 C, respectively. The amylolytic enzymes from both
strains retained 30 - 50 % residual activities after 30 min of incubation at pH ranging
from 4.0 to 10.0. The enzyme from strain F17R showed higher thermal stability than
that of strain S7R as it retained 90% residual activity at 60 C for 30 min, while,
amylolytic enzyme from strain S7R retained only 20% residual activity under the same
condition. The effect of metal ions on enzyme activity revealed that ca2+ could
improve amylolytic activity of strain F17R to up to 194%, while Ba 2+,Cu2,+ , and
zn2+ enhanced amylolytic activity of strain S7R to 121, 123 and 115%,
respectively. The substrate specificity of amylotytic enzymes showed that both enzymes
catalyzed the degradation of cassava starch, peddy rice starch, corn starch, sticky rice
starch, amylose and amylopectin. The major hydrolysis products of soluble starch from
both enzymes were a mixture of malto-oligosaccharides, which are G2, G3, and G4.