Ajinomoto Co., Ltd.

Okayama University

Noriki Nio

Minao Asano

Tetsuya Miwa

Tomohiro Kodera

Nami Nakamura

Hidehiko Wakabayashi

Misako Kawai

Shoji Sakaguchi

Yoshiyuki Kumazawa

Takeshi Okamoto

Chiya Kuraishi

Jiro Sakamoto

Kazuhiro Nakanishi

Toshiya Numazawa

Daiki Ninomiya

Hikaru Shibata

Koreyoshi Imamura

Hiroyuki Imanaka

Mayuko Koreishi

Tomohiro Sakamoto

Noriaki Yamada

Tetsuay Miwa

A method of improving the quality of a starch-containing food and a method of suppressing the retrogradation of a starch-containing food by adding an enzyme having a glycosyl transfer activity, whereby an &#x3b1;-1,4 bond is converted into an &#x3b1;-1,6 bond, to the starch-containing food; and a quality improving agent for a starch-containing food which contains the enzyme.

Method of improving properties of starch-containing food and property-improving agent

The present invention provides an aminoacylase having superior abilities in specifically acylating and hydrolyzing e-amino group of Lys, and a method of producing N&#x3b5;-acyl-L-lysine. The present invention provides N&#x3b5;-acyl-L-lysine-specific aminoacylase containing the amino acid sequence of SERPXTTLLRNGDVH (X unknown) at the N-terminal, and a method of producing N&#x3b5;-acyl-L-lysine comprising acting the aminoacylase on L-Lys and a carboxylic acid.

N&#x3b5;-acyl-L-lysine-specific aminoacylase

The present invention discloses a method for producing foods and/or beverage having improved taste and/or flavour, comprising reacting a microbial aminopeptidase on a protein material optionally under the co-existence of a protease, wherein said aminopeptidase has the properties of: (a) having an activity of catalyzing the reaction of specifically releasing a glutamic acid and an aspartic acid from the N-terminal of a peptide and/or a protein; (b) having 50% or more activity at pH6.0-9.0 as compared with the activity at the optimum pH; (c) having 40% or more activity after heating at 25-60&#xb0; C., pH7.5 for 30 minutes as compared with the activity of the non-heated enzyme; (d) having a molecular weight of about 40-60 kD as measured by SDS-PAGE and about 300-480 kD as measured by native-PAGE; (e) having a hydrolyzing activity of the aminopeptidase toward Glu-Glu dipeptide is 5 U/mg or more, preferably 10 U/mg or more.

Method of improving taste and/or flavour of foods and beverages

Herein is disclosed a cheese yield enhancing method in a cheese manufacturing method including a process of separating a cheese curd from a whey after a milk coagulating treatment of a material milk by a milk coagulating enzyme, said cheese yield enhancing method comprising steps of: adding/mixing a protein decomposing enzyme treated material of a milk whey protein (a partial hydrolysate of the milk whey protein) to the material milk; and subjecting a resulting mixture to the milk coagulating treatment by the milk coagulating enzyme, or said cheese yield enhancing method comprising steps of: adding/mixing a partial hydrolysate of a milk whey protein to the material milk; allowing transglutaminase to act on a resulting mixture; and subjecting the mixture to the milk coagulating treatment by the milk coagulating enzyme, whereby a yield of a cheese curd from a material milk, and therefore a yield of cheese may be enhanced and a cheese superior in quality may be manufactured.

Cheese yield enhancing method

A method for producing a protein hydrolysate with low bitterness by contacting a protein with a protease having a low specificity to cleave a site of a hydrophobic amino acid residue in the protein.

Method for producing a protein hydrolysate with low bitterness

DNA molecule encoding new aminopeptidase, and method of producing the aminopeptidase

An aminopeptidase is provided which efficiently decomposes a low-molecular-weight peptide containing glutamic acid or aspartic acid in its sequence. A method of hydrolyzing a peptide or protein by use of the aminopeptidase is also provided. Aminopeptidase GX is derived from germinated soybean cotyledons and releases glutamic acid or aspartic acid from a peptide or protein containing glutamic acid or aspartic acid at the N-terminal end and is used to hydrolyse peptides or proteins.

Aminopeptidase GX, and a method of hydrolyzing a protein with the same

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Kawasaki, Japan

Noriki Nio