ALPHA-1,3-(3,6-ANHYDRO)-D-GALACTOSIDASES AND THE USE OF SAME FOR HYDROLYSING POLYSACCHARIDES
Résumé
The present invention concerns the isolation, purification and characterisation of a protein having a novel enzymatic activity, i.e. an alpha-1,3-(3,6-anhydro)-D-galactosidase activity. This protein can be used for hydrolysing polysaccharides and oligosaccharides containing (non-sulfated) beta-carrabiose units, which may be present naturally (e.g. carrageenans extracted from red seaweeds of the Tichocarpus and Furcellaria genus) or introduced artificially by chemical or enzymatic desulfation (for example from kappa- and iota-carrageenans). The activity of this protein, demonstrated on oligo-carrageenans with a hybrid kappa/beta structure, makes it possible, for example, to produce the 3,6-anhydro-D-galactose monosaccharide and odd-numbered oligo-carrageenans of a defined size of the carrabiose series, i.e. having a D-galactose residue at the non-reducing end.