Heterologous production of the widely used natural food colorant carminic acid in Aspergillus nidulans.

The natural red food colorants carmine (E120) and carminic acid are currently produced from scale insects. The access to raw material is limited and current production is sensitive to fluctuation in weather conditions. A cheaper and more stable supply is therefore desirable.

The X-ray crystallographic structure of Escherichia coli branching enzyme.

Branching enzyme catalyzes the formation of alpha-1,6 branch points in either glycogen or starch. We report the 2.3-A crystal structure of glycogen branching enzyme from Escherichia coli.

Granule-bound starch synthase I. A major enzyme involved in the biogenesis of B-crystallites in starch granules.

Starch defines a semicrystalline polymer made of two different polysaccharide fractions. The A- and B-type crystalline lattices define the distinct structures reported in cereal and tuber starches, respectively. Amylopectin, the major fraction of starch, is thought to be chiefly responsible for this semicrystalline organization while amylose is generally considered as an amorphous polymer with little or no impact on the overall crystalline organization.

Truncation of the amino terminus of branching enzyme changes its chain transfer pattern.

Previous work has reported the production of an Escherichia coli branching enzyme with a 112-residue deletion at the amino terminal by limited proteolysis. Here, we study the chain transfer pattern of this enzyme. Gel-permeation chromatography of in vitro branched amylose shows that the truncated branching enzyme transfers fewer short chains (degree of polymerization [d.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of Escherichia coli branching enzyme.

Branching enzyme catalyzes the formation of the branch points in glycogen and starch by cleavage of the alpha-1,4 link and its subsequent transfer to the alpha-1,6 position. This paper reports the crystallization and preliminary structural studies of an amino-terminally truncated branching enzyme from Escherichia coli. High-resolution diffracting crystals were obtained and a complete native data set to a resolution of 2.