Applicability of recombinant β-xylosidase from the extremely thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus thermodenitrificans in synthesizing alkylxylosides

• The first report on the characterization of β-xylosidase of G. thermodenitrificans.
• The enzyme is thermostable and retains activity at alkaline pH.
• The enzyme is useful in the hydrolysis of agroresidues.
• The enzyme aids in generating methylxylosides due to its transxylosylation activity.

The β-xylosidase encoding gene (XsidB) of the extremely thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus thermodenitrificans has been cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The homotrimeric recombinant XsidB is of 204.0 kDa, which is optimally active at 60 °C and pH 7.0 with T1/2 of 58 min at 70 °C. The β-xylosidase remains unaffected in the presence of most metal ions and organic solvents. The Km [p-nitrophenyl β-xyloside (pNPX)], Vmax and kcat values of the enzyme are 2 × 10−3 M, 1250 μmoles mg−1 min−1 and 13.20 × 105 min−1, respectively. The enzyme catalyzes transxylosylation reactions in the presence of alcohols as acceptors. The pharmaceutically important β-methyl-d-xylosides could be produced using pNPX as the donor and methanol as acceptor. The products of transxylosylation were identified by TLC and HPLC, and the structure was confirmed by 1H NMR analysis. The enzyme is also useful in synthesizing transxylosylation products from the wheat bran hydrolysate.