Agave-Laurate-Bioconjugated Fructans Decrease Hyperinsulinemia and Insulin Resistance, Whilst Increasing IL-10 in Rats with Metabolic Syndrome Induced by a High-Fat Diet.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) comprises a cluster of metabolic risk factors, which include obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of laurate-bioconjugated fructans on pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in Wistar rats with MetS induced by a high-fat diet. Laurate-bioconjugated fructans were synthesized with agave fructans, immobilized lipase B, and vinyl laureate as the acylant.

Effect of Agave Fructan Bioconjugates on Metabolic Syndrome Parameters in a Murine Model.

Metabolic syndrome is a complex disorder that combines abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and insulin resistance. Metabolic syndrome affects 25% of the world's population. Agave fructans have shown positive effects on alterations related to metabolic syndrome, so some investigations have focused on their bioconjugation with fatty acids to increase their biological activity.

Yeasts Inhabiting Extreme Environments and Their Biotechnological Applications.

Yeasts are microscopic fungi inhabiting all Earth environments, including those inhospitable for most life forms, considered extreme environments. According to their habitats, yeasts could be extremotolerant or extremophiles. Some are polyextremophiles, depending on their growth capacity, tolerance, and survival in the face of their habitat's physical and chemical constitution.

Beneficial Effects of Fructooligosaccharides Esterified with Lauric Acid in a Metabolic Syndrome Model Induced by a High-Fat and High-Carbohydrate Diet in Wistar Rats.

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a group of abnormalities in which obesity, insulin resistance (IR), oxidative stress, and dyslipidemia stand out. This pathology predisposes to the development of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The ingestion of linear fructooligosaccharides (FOS) such as inulin reduces conditions such as hyperinsulinemia, increased body fat, and triglyceridemia.

Enzymatic synthesis of phlorizin fructosides.

Phlorizin is a low soluble dihydrochalcone with relevant pharmacological properties. In this study, enzymatic fructosylation was approached to enhance the water solubility of phlorizin, and consequently its bioavailability. Three enzymes were assayed for phlorizin fructosylation in aqueous reactions using sucrose as fructosyl donor.

Fructosylation of phenolic compounds by levansucrase from Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus.

Fructosylation can significantly improve the solubility, stability and bioactivity of phenolic compounds, increasing their health benefits. Levansucrase from Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus (LsdA, EC 2.4.

Evaluation of Oil for Biodiesel Production: Land Use Oil Yield, Carbon, and Energy Balance.

Oils from yeasts have emerged as a suitable alternative raw material to produce biodiesel, due to their similar composition to common raw materials such as vegetable oils. Additionally, they have the advantage of not competing with human or animal feed, and, furthermore, they do not compete for arable land. In this work, a carbon and energy balance was evaluated for as a model yeast, using crude glycerol from biodiesel as the only carbon source, which improves biodiesel overall yield by 6%.

Optimization of Regioselective α-Glucosylation of Hesperetin Catalyzed by Cyclodextrin Glucanotransferase.

The regioselective α-glucosylation of hesperetin was achieved by a transglycosylation reaction catalyzed by cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) from sp. using soluble starch as glucosyl donor. By combining mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF) and 2D-NMR analysis, the main monoglucosylated derivative was fully characterized (hesperetin 7--α-d-glucopyranoside).

A Fast and Simple Qualitative Method for Screening Oleaginous Yeasts on Agar.

Finding new oleaginous yeasts is of great interest due to their many important applications. Currently available screening procedures are time-consuming, and most of these require liquid cultures. In this work, a new, fast, economical, and simple qualitative method for screening oleaginous yeasts was developed.

Lipase, Phospholipase, and Esterase Biosensors (Review).

A biosensor is a device composed by a biological recognition element and a transducer that delivers selective information about a specific analyte. Technological and scientific advances in the area of biology, bioengineering, catalysts, electrochemistry, nanomaterials, microelectronics, and microfluidics have improved the design and performance of better biosensors. Enzymatic biosensors based on lipases, esterases, and phospholipases are valuable analytical apparatus which have been applied in food industry, oleochemical industry, biodegradable polymers, environmental science, and overall the medical area as diagnostic tools to detect cholesterol and triglyceride levels in blood samples.

Lipases as Biocatalyst for Biodiesel Production.

Global shortages of fossil fuels, significant rise in the price of crude oil, and increased environmental concerns have stimulated the rapid growth of biodiesel production. Biodiesel is generally produced through transesterification reaction catalyzed either chemically or enzymatically. Enzymatic transesterification is of interest since it shows advantages over the chemical process and, in addition, is considered a "green" process.

Lipase-Catalyzed Synthesis of Fatty Acid Esters of Trisaccharides.

Carbohydrate fatty acid esters have a broad spectrum of applications in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The enzyme-catalyzed acylation is significantly more selective than the chemical process and is carried out at milder conditions. Compared with mono- and disaccharides, the acylation of trisaccharides has been less studied.

Solid-State Fermentation as an Economic Production Method of Lipases.

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) has been largely employed during the last three decades to produce different biomolecules of industrial interest, particularly enzymes. Through the use of agroindustrial wastes as SSF substrates, an economic process of lipases production can be achieved. In this chapter we describe a comprehensive SSF method for producing an economical preparation of Rhizomucor miehei lipase, employing sugarcane bagasse and used vegetal oil as substrates.

Functional Expression of Plant Lipases: The Case of CpLip1 from Carica papaya.

Carica papaya latex is one of the most studied sources of plant lipases. However, the complexity of the matrix composition makes it difficult to isolate and purify the lipolytic enzymes present in Carica papaya latex. Therefore, diverse strategies have been developed to study the catalytic properties of these enzymes.

Lipases: An Overview.

Lipases are ubiquitous enzymes, widespread in nature. They were first isolated from bacteria in the early nineteenth century, and the associated research continuously increased due to the characteristics of these enzymes. This chapter reviews the main sources, structural properties, and industrial applications of these highly studied enzymes.

Engineering to enhance lipid production from lignocellulosic materials.

Background: is a common biotechnological chassis for the production of lipids, which are the preferred feedstock for the production of fuels and chemicals. To reduce the cost of microbial lipid production, inexpensive carbon sources must be used, such as lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Unfortunately, lignocellulosic materials often contain toxic compounds and a large amount of xylose, which cannot be used by .

Functionalization of natural compounds by enzymatic fructosylation.

Enzymatic fructosylation of organic acceptors other than sugar opens access to the production of new molecules that do not exist in nature. These new glycoconjugates may have improved physical-chemical and bioactive properties like solubility, stability, bioavailability, and bioactivity. This review focuses on different classes of acceptors including alkyl alcohols, aromatic alcohols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and xanthonoids, which were tested for the production of fructoderivatives using enzymes from the glycoside hydrolase (GH) families 32 and 68 that use sucrose as donor substrate.

High Throughput Screening: Developed Techniques for Cellulolytic and Xylanolytic Activities Assay.

High throughput screening (HTS) is a powerful tool in biotechnology. The search for new or improved enzymes with suitable biochemical properties for industrial processes, has resulted in high efforts and research activities to develop new methodologies for activity screening. In this context, important advances have been achieved for the screening of cellulases and xylanases activities from wild and recombinant microorganisms, and from sequence databases.

Synthesis and emulsifying properties of carbohydrate fatty acid esters produced from Agave tequilana fructans by enzymatic acylation.

Carbohydrate fatty acid esters are non-ionic surfactants with a broad spectrum of applications. These molecules are generally synthesized using short carbohydrates or linear fructans; however in this research carbohydrate fatty acid esters were produced for the first time with branched fructans from Agave tequilana. Using immobilized lipases we successfully acylated A.

Proteases and their Inhibitors: From Basic to High Throughput Screening.

Proteases constitute one of the most important groups of industrial enzymes with a worldwide value expected to reach 2.7 billion US dollars by 2019. Proteases represent a group of enzymes that hydrolyze the peptide bonds of proteins, releasing polypeptides or free amino acids.

Monitoring lipase/esterase activity by stopped flow in a sequential injection analysis system using p-nitrophenyl butyrate.

Lipases and esterases are biocatalysts used at the laboratory and industrial level. To obtain the maximum yield in a bioprocess, it is important to measure key variables, such as enzymatic activity. The conventional method for monitoring hydrolytic activity is to take out a sample from the bioreactor to be analyzed off-line at the laboratory.

Oligomerization of 10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid and methyl 10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanoate catalyzed by lipases.

The main monomer of tomato cuticle, 10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid (10,16-DHPA) and its methyl ester derivative (methyl-10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanote; methyl-10,16-DHHD), were used to study their oligomerization reactions catalyzed by five lipases: Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B), Rhizomucor miehei lipase (RM), Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TL), Pseudomonas cepacia lipase (PCL) and porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL). For 10,16-DHPA, optimum yields were obtained at 60 °C using toluene and 2-methyl-2-butanol (2M2B) as solvent, while for methyl-10,16-DHHD the bests yields were obtained in toluene and acetonitrile. Both reactions leaded to linear polyesters according to the NMR and FT-IR analysis, and there was no data indicating the presence of branched polymers.

Biocatalysis for biobased chemicals.

The design and development of greener processes that are safe and friendly is an irreversible trend that is driven by sustainable and economic issues. The use of Biocatalysis as part of a manufacturing process fits well in this trend as enzymes are themselves biodegradable, require mild conditions to work and are highly specific and well suited to carry out complex reactions in a simple way. The growth of computational capabilities in the last decades has allowed Biocatalysis to develop sophisticated tools to understand better enzymatic phenomena and to have the power to control not only process conditions but also the enzyme's own nature.