Enzymolysis reaction kinetics and thermodynamics of defatted wheat germ protein with ultrasonic pretreatment

This research explores the mechanism of ultrasonic pretreatment on enzymolysis of defatted wheat germ protein (DWGP). The enzymolysis reaction kinetics and thermodynamics were studied after ultrasonic pretreatments using a probe-type sonicator and an ultrasonic cleaning bath, and the results were compared with traditional enzymolysis. The results showed that both the traditional and ultrasonic pretreated enzymolysis fit well to first-order kinetics. Both the temperature and ultrasound had a positive effect on the enzymolysis of DWGP, with temperature playing a dominant role. Under the optimized conditions of DWGP concentration of 1% (w/v), Alcalase concentration of 2000 U/g, time of 10 min and temperature of 50 °C, both the probe and cleaning bath ultrasonic pretreated enzymolysis showed high polypeptide concentrations (231.019 and 231.320 μg/mL) and low energy requirements. In comparison with traditional enzymolysis, these methods significantly increased the reaction rate constant (k) by 166.7% and 144.4%, 92.9% and 85.7%, 28.0% and 28.0%, 16.1% and 12.9% at 20, 30, 40 and 50 °C, and decreased the activation energy (E_a), enthalpy of activation (ΔH), Gibbs free energy of activation (ΔG) and entropy of activation (ΔS) by 68.6% and 62.4%, 74.1% and 67.5%, 34.3% and 31.2%, 1.4% and 1.3%. It can be concluded that ultrasonic pretreatment of DWGP can remarkably improve the enzymolysis efficiency and consequently leads to the production of higher polypeptide yield.     

Enzymolysis kinetics and structural characteristics of rice protein with energy-gathered ultrasound and ultrasound assisted alkali pretreatments

This research investigated the structural characteristics and enzymolysis kinetics of rice protein which was pretreated by energy-gathered ultrasound and ultrasound assisted alkali. The structural characteristics of rice protein before and after the pretreatment were performed with surface hydrophobicity and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). There was an increase in the intensity of fluorescence spectrum and changes in functional groups after the pretreatment on rice protein compared with the control (without ultrasound and ultrasound assisted alkali processed), thus significantly enhancing efficiency of the enzymatic hydrolysis. A simplified kinetic equation for the enzymolysis model with the impeded reaction of enzyme was deduced to successfully describe the enzymatic hydrolysis of rice protein by different pretreatments. The initial observed rate constants (K_in,0) as well as ineffective coefficients (k_imp) were proposed and obtained based on the experimental observation. The results showed that the parameter of k_in,0 increased after ultrasound and ultrasound assisted alkali pretreatments, which proved the effects of the pretreatments on the substrate enhancing the enzymolysis process and had relation to the structure changes of the pretreatments on the substrate. Furthermore, the applicability of the simplified model was demonstrated by the enzymatic hydrolysis process for other materials.     

Enzymolysis kinetics and activities of ACE inhibitory peptides from wheat germ protein prepared with SFP ultrasound-assisted processing

There is a great demand for developing efficient enzymolysis methods in order to increase the enzymolysis efficiencies and activities of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides from wheat germ protein. The enzymolysis kinetics, ACE inhibitory activity of peptide and conversion rate of protein were studied using sweep frequency and pulsed (SFP) ultrasound-assisted enzymolysis and the results were compared with traditional enzymolysis. The studied factors were enzymolysis time and substrate concentration. By considering the activity of ACE inhibitory peptide and operation cost, the recommended conditions of SFP ultrasound-assisted enzymolysis were enzymolysis time of 120 min and substrate concentration of 24.0 g/L, which gave high conversion rates of protein (60.7%) and ACE inhibitory activity of peptide (65.9%). Compared to traditional enzymolysis, SFP ultrasound-assisted enzymolysis significantly increased the initial reaction rate (V) by 60.0% at substrate concentration of 24.0 g/L, increased the apparent breakdown rate constant (k(A)) by 66.7%, decreased the apparent constant (K(M)) by 6.9%, and raised the conversion rate of protein by 35.5% and ACE inhibitory activity of peptides by 35.6% under the recommended conditions. It has been concluded that SFP ultrasound can remarkably raise the enzymolysis efficiency and activity of ACE inhibitory peptides from wheat germ protein.     

Stationary cell size distributions and mean protein chain length distributions of Archaea,Bacteria and Eukaryotes described with an increment model in terms of irreversible thermodynamics

In terms of an increment model irreversible thermodynamics allows to formulate general relations of stationary cell size distributions observed in growing colonies. The treatment is based on the following key postulates: i) The growth dynamics covers a broad spectrum of fast and slow processes. ii) Slow processes are considered to install structural patterns that operate in short periods as temporary stationary states of reference in the sense of irreversible thermodynamics. iii) Distortion during growth is balanced out via the many fast processes until an optimized stationary state is achieved. The relation deduced identifies the numerous different stationary patterns as equivalents, predicting that they should fall on one master curve. Stationary cell size distributions of different cell types, like Hyperphilic archaea, E. coli (Prokaryotes) and S. cerevisiae (Eukaryotes), altogether taken from the literature, are in fact consistently described. As demanded by the model they agree together with the same master curve. Considering the “protein factories” as subsystems of cells the mean protein chain length distributions deduced from completely sequenced genomes should be optimized. In fact, the mean course can be described with analogous relations as used above. Moreover, the master curve fits well to the patterns of different species of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes. General consequences are discussed.     

Effects of multi-frequency ultrasound on physicochemical properties,structural characteristics of gluten protein and the quality of noodle

In this study, the influence of multi-frequency ultrasound irradiation on the functional properties and structural characteristics of gluten, as well as the textural and cooking characteristics of the noodles were investigated. Results showed that the textural and cooking characteristics of noodles that contain less gluten pretreated by multi-frequency ultrasonic were ultrasonic frequency dependent. Moreover, the noodles that contain a smaller amount of sonicated gluten could achieve the textural and cooking quality of commercial noodles. There was no significant difference in the cooking and texture characteristics between commercial noodles and noodles with 12%, 11%, and 10% gluten pretreated by single-frequency (40 kHz), dual-frequency (28/40 kHz), and triple-frequency sonication (28/40/80 kHz), respectively. Furthermore, the cavitation efficiency of triple-frequency ultrasound was greater than that of dual-frequency and single-frequency. As the number of ultrasonic frequencies increased, the solubility, water holding capacity and oil holding capacity of gluten increased significantly (p < 0.05), and the particle size was reduced from 197.93 ± 5.28 nm to 110.15 ± 2.61 nm. Furthermore, compared to the control group (untreated), the UV absorption and fluorescence intensity of the gluten treated by multi-frequency ultrasonication increased. The surface hydrophobicity of gluten increased from 8159.1 ± 195.87 (untreated) to 11621.5 ± 379.72 (28/40/80 kHz). Raman spectroscopy showed that the α-helix content of all sonicated gluten protein samples decreased after sonication, while the β-sheet and β-turn content increased, and tryptophan and tyrosine residues were exposed. Through scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, the gluten protein network structure after ultrasonic treatment was loose, and the pore size of the gluten protein network increased from about 10 μm (untreated) to about 26 μm (28/40/80 kHz). This work elucidated the effect of ultrasonic frequency on the performance of gluten, indicating that with increasing frequency combination increases, the ultrasound effect became more pronounced and protein unfolding increased, thereby impacting the functional properties and the quality of the final product. This study provided a theoretical basis for the application of multi-frequency ultrasound technology in the modification of gluten protein and noodle processing.