Characteristics of yeast invertase immobilized on porous cellulose beads

Abstract

Invertase from Candida utilis was immobilized on porous cellulose beads by an ionic-quanidino bond. The immobilized invertase showed optimum activity between pH 4.0 and 5.4, while the free enzyme had a sharp optimum at pH 4.1. Both temperature profiles were fairly similar up to 55°C. However, above this temperature the immobilized enzyme was more stable than the free enzyme. From the temperature data, the activation energies were found to be 7,322 and 4,052 cal/g mol for the free and the immobilized enzyme, respectively. Candida invertase shows characteristics of substrate inhibition. Both the K_m and K_i for the free and the immobilized enzymes were determined. The apparent K_i for the immobilized invertase was much higher than the K_i of the free enzyme, suggesting a diffusion effect. Immobilized invertase molecules deep in the pores only see sucrose concentrations much less than the bulk concentrations. Immobilization, thus, offers certain processing advantages in this regard.