Critical effect of ammonium ions on the enzymatic reaction of a novel transfructosylating enzyme for fructooligosaccharide production from sucrose

A crude transfructosylating enzyme from a new isolate Bacillus marcerans EG -7 required a lag period for catalytic activity during formation of fructoo ligosaccharides from sucrose. The lag period was markedly reduced by additi on of various ammonium ions to the reaction mixture; 100 mM NH4NO3 enhanced the enzyme activity by 15 fold (at 40 h) reducing the lag-time from 25 h t o 30 min. In contrast, partially purified enzyme completely removed the lag period while ammonium ions still accelerated the initial reaction rate.