Purification and characterization of α-galactosidase from white chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Glycosylated α-galactosidase (melibiase) has been purified from white chickpea ( Cicer arietinum ) to 340-fold with a specific activity of 61 units/mg. Cicer α-galactosidase showed a M(r) of 45 kDa on SDS-PAGE and by MALDI-TOF. The optimum pH and temperature with pNPGal were 4.5 and 50 °C, respectively. The K(m) for hydrolysis of pNPGal was 0.70 mM. Besides hydrolyzing the pNPGal, Cicer α-galactosidase also hydrolyzed natural substrates such as melibiose, raffinose, and stachyose very effectively; hence, it can be exploited commercially for improving the nutritional value of soy milk. Galactose was found to be a competitive inhibitor. The property of this enzyme to cleave the terminal galactose residues can be utilized for converting the group B erythrocytes to group O erythrocytes.