Abstract:
alpha-Galactosidase or melibiase is a versatile enzyme with many potential biotechnological and industrial applications. The substrate specificities of three alpha-galactosidases - alpha-Gal I, alpha-Gal II, and alpha-Gal III - from Streptomyces griseoloalbus were studied using different galactose-containing natural substrates like melibiose, raffinose and stachyose. The kinetic parameters K(m), and V(max) were determined from the Lineweaver-Burk plot. alpha-Gal I showed highest affinity towards melibiose where as alpha-Gal II and alpha-Gal III showed highest affinity towards stachyose. The (1)H NMR studies showed that all the three alpha-galactosidases had a retaining mechanism of hydrolysis.
