Background: Cold-active enzymes, sourced from cold-adapted organisms, are characterized by high catalytic efficiencies at low temperatures compared with their mesophilic counterparts, which have poor activity. This property makes them advantageous for biotechnology applications as it: (i) saves energy costs, (ii) shortens the times for processes operated at low temperatures, (iii) protects thermosensitive substrates or products...

beta-D-Galactosidases have been studied extensively in terms of their application to a variety of industrial technologies. To date, considerable research efforts have been devoted to characterization of new cold-active beta-D-galactosidases which were isolated directly from selected species of bacteria and yeasts, as well as with the use of metagenomic approaches. This chapter will provide a review of current research towards cold-active...

A psychrotrophic bacterium producing a cold-active β-galactosidase was isolated from Spitsbergen soil and classified as Arthrobacter sp. S3*. The gene encoding β-galactosidase was isolated from the genomic DNA library, sequenced, cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli, purified by ion exchange chromatography and characterized. The Arthrobaster sp. S3* β-galactosidase is a homotrimeric enzyme composed of 74,4 kDa subunits. It is...

In this paper production of a cold-active esterase EstA from the Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. 643A in E. coli expression system was described. The purification and biochemical characteristic of EstA were performed in the presence of urea and then compared with results obtained for the esterase with no addition of urea and isolated from the native source. In both cases the cold-active enzyme displayed similar properties....