Expression and activity analysis of sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase from onion

This study was designed to express the onion fructosyltransferase by Escherichia coli DH5alpha, and obtain the optimal conditions of FST-1 activity. Thereby, fructosyltransferase gene was obtained by RT-PCR from onion in this experiment, and named FST-1. The expressed proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. FST-1 activity was identified by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The optimal conditions of FST-1 were analyzed by the dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid (DNS) and orthogonal test. Results revealed that FST-1 was identified to 98% similarity with fructosyltransferase mRNA of onion (accession number: AJ006066). FST-1 was successfully expressed in E. coli DH5alpha. HPLC results indicated that the expressed protein from FST-1 had a good transferring activity for fructose. The optimal conditions of FST-1 in catalyzing reaction were the pH 5.0, 45 degrees C and 60% sucrose substrate. The results in this experiment would lay the foundation for the large-scale of kestose by bio-catalysis method.