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In vitro synthesis of glycogen: the structure, properties, and physiological function of enzymatically-synthesized glycogen

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Abstract

This review describes a new enzymatic method for in vitro glycogen synthesis and its structure and properties. In this method, short-chain amylose is used as the substrate for branching enzymes (BE, EC 2.4.1.18). Although a kidney bean BE and Bacillus cereus BE could not synthesize high-molecular weight glucan, BEs from 6 other bacterial sources produced enzymatically synthesized glycogen (ESG). The BE from Aquifex aeolicus was the most suitable for the production of glycogen with a weight-average molecular weight (M w) of 3,000–30,000 k. The molecular weight of the ESG is controllable by changing the concentration of the substrate amylose. Furthermore, the addition of amylomaltase (AM, EC 2.4.1.25) significantly enhanced the efficiency of this process, and the yield of ESG reached approximately 65%. Typical preparations of ESG obtained by this method were subjected to structural analyses. The average chain length, interior chain length, and exterior chain length of the ESGs were 8.2–11.6, 2.0–3.3, and 4.2–7.6, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy and intrinsic viscosity measurement showed that the ESG molecules formed spherical particles. Unlike starch, the ESGs were barely degraded by pullulanase. Solutions of ESG were opalescent (milky-white and slightly bluish), and gave a reddishbrown color on the addition of iodine. These analyses revealed that ESG shares similar molecular shapes and solution properties with natural-source glycogen. Moreover, ESG had macrophage-stimulating activity and its activity depends on the molecular weight of ESG. We successfully achieved large scale production of ESG. ESG could lead to new industrial applications, such as in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical fields.

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Abbreviations

AM:

amylomaltase

BE:

branching enzyme

DP:

degree of polymerization

ESG:

enzymatically synthesized glycogen

GP:

α-glucan phosphorylase

HPSEC-MALLS-RI:

high-performance size-exclusion chromatography with a multiangle laser light scattering photometer and a differential refractive index detector

IAM:

isoamylase

NSG:

natural-source glycogen

SP:

sucrose phosphorylase

TEM:

transmission electron microscopy

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Development Department, Food Material Division, Glico Foods Co., Ltd., 7-16 Kasuga-cho, Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-0053, Japan

    Hideki Kajiura & Toshiaki Harui

  2. Institute of Health Sciences, Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd., 4-5-6, Utajima, Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, 555-8502, Japan

    Hideki Kajiura, Hiroki Takata, Tsunehisa Akiyama, Ryo Kakutani, Takashi Furuyashiki, Iwao Kojima & Takashi Kuriki

Authors
  1. Hideki Kajiura
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  2. Hiroki Takata
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  3. Tsunehisa Akiyama
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  4. Ryo Kakutani
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  5. Takashi Furuyashiki
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  7. Toshiaki Harui
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  8. Takashi Kuriki
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Correspondence to Hideki Kajiura.

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Kajiura, H., Takata, H., Akiyama, T. et al. In vitro synthesis of glycogen: the structure, properties, and physiological function of enzymatically-synthesized glycogen. Biologia 66, 387–394 (2011). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0053-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0053-y

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