Candida Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Candida, including details on thrush infections, yeast, diet, treatment, symptoms.

Effects of porous polystyrene resin parameters on Candida antarctica lipase B adsorption, distribution, and polyester synthesis activity.

Chen B, Miller ME, Gross RA

NSF I/UCRC for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing of Macromolecules, Polytechnic University, 6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA.

Polystyrene resins with varied particle sizes (35 to 350-600 microm) and pore diameters (300-1000 A) were employed to study the effects of immobilization resin particle size and pore diameter on Candida antarctica Lipase B (CALB) loading, distribution within resins, fraction of active sites, and catalytic properties for polyester synthesis. CALB adsorbed rapidly (saturation time </= 4 min) for particle sizes </= 120 microm (pore size = 300 A). Infrared microspectroscopy showed that CALB forms protein loading fronts regardless of resin particle size at similar enzyme loadings ( approximately 8%). From the IR images, the fractions of total surface area available to the enzyme are 21, 33, 35, 37, and 88% for particle sizes 350-600, 120, 75, 35 microm (pore size 300 A), and 35 microm (pore size 1000 A), respectively. Titration with methyl p-nitrophenyl n-hexylphosphate (MNPHP) showed that the fraction of active CALB molecules adsorbed onto resins was approximately 60%. The fraction of active CALB molecules was invariable as a function of resin particle and pore size. At approximately 8% (w/w) CALB loading, by increasing the immobilization support pore diameter from 300 to 1000 A, the turnover frequency (TOF) of epsilon-caprolactone (epsilon-CL) to polyester increased from 12.4 to 28.2 s-1. However, the epsilon-CL conversion rate was not influenced by changes in resin particle size. Similar trends were observed for condensation polymerizations between 1,8-octanediol and adipic acid. The results herein are compared to those obtained with a similar series of methyl methacrylate resins, where variations in particle size largely affected CALB distribution within resins and catalyst activity for polyester synthesis.

Published 15 May 2007 in Langmuir, 23(11): 6467-74.
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