Molecular analysis and application trial of a novel enzyme for efficient production of valuable compounds from sesame oil cake

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K07380
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Applied biochemistry
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	Yamashita Satoshi 金沢大学, 物質化学系, 准教授 (70361186)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,810,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,110,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
Keywords	セサミノール / 脂溶性有用物質
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This research focuses on the trials for efficient production of sesaminol, a sesame lignan with prominent health-giving effects on human such as potent antioxidant activity. Although sesame oil contains a small amount of sesaminol, sesame seed contains some conjugated forms of sesaminol such as sesaminoll triglucoside (STG) which is highly resistant to hydrolytic actions of beta-glucosidases. We previously isolated a beta-glucosidase which was capable of hydrolyzing STG to produce sesaminol, and named the enzyme as PSTG. However, the molecular mechanism of PSTG is still unknown and its possibility of application for industrial production of sesaminol needs to be examined. Here, we succeeded a consecutive reaction from STG to sesaminol in vitro. To obtain insights into the mechanism of PSTG, we crystallized PSTG and successfully obtained good crystals. Moreover, we identified the operon containing PSTG gene and a novel PSTG-like gene which encoded a more efficient enzyme than PSTG.