The aim of the study was to analyze the differences in the activity of β-glucuronidase and β-glucosidase in stool specimens of children with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) and healthy subjects. The disease activity was determined according to the PCDAI scale (Crohn disease) and Truelove-Witts scale (Ulcerative colitis). Enzyme activity was determined by spectrophotometry. There was a correlation between the level of β - glucosidase activity in stool and patient’s age in the group of healthy controls, but not in the IBD group. β-glucosidase activity in IBD and healthy subjects stool specimens did not differ significantly. The activity of β-glucuronidase in children with IBD was two times lower than in the healthy group and was correlated with age in children with IBD, but not in the group of healthy ones.
The domination of microorganisms characterized by excessive activity of the so-called fecal enzymes may be one of the reasons of the large intestine cancers. These enzymes are mainly those that belong to the hydrolase and reductase classes and their excessive activity may lead to disorders in the functioning of the digestive tract. The aim of tise research was to determine the activity of β-glucuronidase and β-glucosidase of Lactobacillus and Enterococcus strains isolated from the feces of healthy children, aged 1 and 8, and adults, aged 30 and.80. The analysis included 10 strains isolated from the feces of individuals in each of the age groups. β-glucuronidase activity in the case of the isolates from children, depending on the strain, equaled from about 0.15 mM/h/mg of protein to 0.26 mM/h/mg of protein and was lower, respectively, by 52.35% and 57.81%, than the β-glucosidase activity. Simultaneously, the activity of the Lactobacillus enzymes from children was 2.4 times higher, and in case of the isolates obtained from adults they were 4.6 and 2.7 times higher than the activity of the Enterococcus enzymes. The highest β-glucuronidase activity was observed in Lactobacillus isolates coming from an 80-year-old subject. The differences between the activity of Enterococcus β-glucuronidase isolated from the feces of 1 and 8 year old children were statistically insignificant. On the other hand, in the case of the subjects aged 30 and 8 the isolates were characterized by activity lower by, respectively. 48% and 37% than the isolates coming from children. The highest β-glucosidase activity was discovered in the case of Lactobacillus and Enterococcus coming from children, which was higher by 32% than the activity of the isolates from adult persons. Therefore, it was determined that the activity of β-glucuronidase of Lactobacillus strains isolated from feces from people aged 80 was the highest, and the isolates of the examined microorganisms coming from children were characterized by the highest β-glucosidase activity.
This paper describes the response of fungi as well as β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase to soil contamination with the herbicides Alister Grande 190 OD, Fuego 500 SC, and Lumax 537.5 SE in the following doses: 1 – recommended dose, and doses 20-, 40-, 80-, and 160-fold higher than the recommended one. A laboratory experiment in three replicates was conducted on sandy loam of the pHKCl – 7.0. The results have indicated that counts of fungi increased under the influence of excessive quantities of the tested herbicides. Irrespective of herbicide type, EP decreased while CD increased at higher contamination doses. With respect to the enzymes, the herbicides were observed to have exerted a negative effect on the activity of arylsulfatase, which was verified by the negative correlation coefficients. However, the activity of β-glucosidase increased after the soil had been enriched with excessive amounts of the herbicides. The RS index for the activity of the enzymes varied, but reached the highest value in soil with Alister Grande 190 OD for both β-glucosidase (0.953) and arylsulfatase (0.567). The contamination of soil with the herbicides caused lasting changes in sandy loam, but the recovery of the enzyme β-glucosidase was faster (the average RL ranged from 0.458 to 0.889). The index of resilience for arylsulfatase was negative, which proves that the adverse effect of all the herbicides on this enzyme was growing.
Seven-day-old seedlings of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Wisconsin were treated with 0.1 mM solutions of cinnamic acid (ferulic and p-coumaric acids) and benzoic acid (p-hydroxybenzoic and vanillic acids) derivatives as stressors. The content of free and glucosylated soluble phenols and the activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (E.C.4.3.1.5), phenol-β-glucosyltransferase (E.C.2.4.1.35.), and β-glucosidase (E.C.3.2.1.21.) in seedling roots as well as their length and fresh weight were examined. Changes in glucosylated phenolic content and phenol-β-glucosyltranspherase activity were observed under the influence of all phenolics applied. Treatment with ferulic and p-coumaric acids stimulated the increase of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and β-glucosidase activity and slightly inhibited cucumber root growth.
Changes in α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase and acid invertase activities were examined in Phaseolus vulgaris hypocotyls treated with gibberellic acid (GA), naphthyl acetic acid (NAA) and distilled water (DW) (control) in light condition. The activities were estimated both in cytoplasmic and ionically wall-bound fraction. The upper segment showed considerable elongation growth while there was hardly any growth in lower segment. GA and NAA showed distinct promotion and inhibition respectively in hypocotyl growth in upper segment. The glycosidase activities were detected in both the fractions but the activity was more pronounced in cytoplasmic than in wall fraction. Acid invertase activity was present only in cytoplasmic fraction. In lower segment, in both cytoplasmic and wall fraction, the glycosidase activity, in general, showed a decreasing trend and no effect of treatment could be envisaged. In upper segment, though the trend was similar to the lower one, in α- and β-galactosidase NAA treated segment had more activity. Invertase activity also did not show a clear trend to implicate its function in hypocotyl elongation growth. The results are discussed in relation to establishing a correlation between an activity (glycosidase and invertase) and a physiological process (hypocotyl elongation). It is concluded that these wall-loosening enzymes have no role in elongation growth of Phaseolus vulgaris hypocotyls.
The effect of various conditions of enzymatic hydrolysis as well as selected glucanolytic and amylolytic enzymes on carbohydrate system changes, necessary for quantitative determination of beta-glucan was evaluated. Hydrolysis of beta-glucan should be followed by elimination of starch in the sample using alpha-amylase Termamyl 120L and alpha-amyloglucosidase enzymes.
Extracellular enzymes occurring in aquatic environment are heterogeneous in respect to their origin and function, place, where they are located and their activity. They can be divided into mainly ‘bacterial-origin’ enzymes produced by heterotrophic organisms in order to obtain organic carbon, and mostly ‘phytoplankton-bacterial-origin’ enzymes, which are produced by autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms, and are responsible mainly for obtaining inorganic compounds. Enzymes activity provides information about microorganisms present in given environment and about their physiological state. We hypothesize that the patterns (‘fingerprints’) calculated on the basis of activity of several enzymes both mainly ‘bacterial-origin’ and mainly ‘phytoplankton-bacterial-origin’ may be used to characterise lake ecosystems in terms of the physiological structure of aquatic microorganisms present in these lakes. For the study we selected four lakes from Mazurian Lakes District in north-eastern Poland. Three of them were clear-water (lakes: Kuc, Mikołajskie, Tałtowisko) and ranged from oligotrophy to eutrophy, the fourth (Lake Smolak Duży) was slightly acidic (pH 5.2), highly productive and polyhumic. Activity of phosphatase (PA), L-leucine-aminopeptidase (AMP), β-glucosidase (B-Glu), esterase (EST), glucosaminidase (Glu-ami), glucuronidase (Glu-uro) and cellobiohydrolase (Cellob) were measured fluorometrically. The results were normalised and analysis of agglomerative clustering was performed to create an enzyme activity patterns characteristic for lakes. We found out that the enzymatic pattern reflected trophic differences between studied lakes. The patterns (‘fingerprints’) of enzymes were similar for three clear-water lakes, with urease (U–ase), AMP and EST dominating the overall enzymatic activity, but differed substantially for polyhumic lake, in which considerably high PA and saccharolytic enzyme activities were observed. We conclude that the analysis of enzymatic ‘fingerprints’ can be a useful tool to characterise lakes with respect to their trophic status and physiological diversity of microbial assemblages associated with each particular lake.
β-glucosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.21), an enzyme involved in cellulose degradation, plays an important role in the soil organic carbon cycle. Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound in the biosphere so a product of its enzymatic hydrolysis is important as an energy source for soil microorganisms. Since β-glucosidase is very sensitive to different factors, determination of its activity might be helpful in soil quality monitoring. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of various doses of farmyard manure (FYM) and mineral nitrogen on β-glucosidase activity in soil samples taken under winter wheat cultivated in crop rotation systems depleting soil from organic matter (A) and enriching soil in organic matter (B). Soil samples were taken in 2002 from a two-factor fertilization experiment carried out as randomized sub-blocks cropped with winter wheat cultivated on lessivé soil. The experiment was located at the Experimental Station of the Institute of Tillage and Soil Science in Grabowo on the Vistula River. All fertilization combinations included FYM (0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 t.ha–1) and nitrogen fertilization (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg ha–1). The activity of β-glucosidase was determined according to Eivazi, Tabatabai (1988). The enzyme activity ranged 3.604-7.041 mM pNP g–1 h–1 in soil samples taken from crop rotation A and between 4.931-7.445 mM pNP g–1 h–1 in those collected from the crop rotation enriching the soil in organic matter. These data were closely related to the applied FYM and nitrogen fertilization doses. Moreover, β-glucosidase activity depended significantly on sampling dates. Enzyme activity was closely connected with soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content, which was confirmed by highly significant correlation coefficients between these parameters (r=0.611-0.770 for Corg, and r=0.844-0.912 for Nog; p<0.01 and p<0.001).
Oznaczano aktywność polifenolooksydazy (PPO) i ß-glukozydazay w owocach takich, jak: truskawka, malina, porzeczka czerwona i porzeczka czarna. Z każdego rodzaju owocu wybrano 3 odmiany. Do oznaczenia stosowano metody spektrofotometryczne. Substrátem w reakcji enzymatycznej były katechol dla PPO i p-nitrofenolo-ß-D-glukozyd dla ß-glukozydazy. Zbadano również wpływ pH i temperatury na aktywność tych enzymów oraz ich termiczną inaktywację. Aktywność PPO stwierdzono jedynie w truskawkach odmiany Senga-Sengana i Ducat, a aktywność ß-glukozydazay w truskawkach Senga-Sengana, Ducat, Marmolada i malinach Canby, Beskid, Seedling. Optymalne warunki dla działania PPO były następujące: pH 4,5 i temp.45°C, a dla ß-glukozydazay pH w zakresie 5,0-5,5 i temp. od 40°C do 50°C w zależności od pochodzenia enzymu.