Efficient production of sophorose from glucose and its potentially industrial application in cellulase production

Sophorose is the most effective inducer for cellulase production by Trichoderma reesei. Currently, the biosynthesis of sophorose is very inefficient, resulting in that unavailable for cellulase production in industry. In this study, CoGH1A, a multifunctional thermophilic glycoside hydrolase, was employed for sophorose production. Under the optimized conditions, the sophorose yield was 37.86 g/L with a productivity of 9.47 g/L/h which is by far the highest productivity. Meanwhile, the Fe₃O₄-CS-THP-CoGH1A nanoparticles were constructed to realize the recycling of CoGH1A. After 5 cycles of catalysis, Fe₃O₄-CS-THP-CoGH1A retained about 83.90 % enzyme activity. Finally, the mixtures of glucose and disaccharides (MGDC) obtained after being catalyzed by CoGH1A was used for cellulase production. As a result, the cellulase productivity achieved 188.38 FPU/L/h in 120 h. These results indicated that sophorose could be efficiently produced from glucose via transglycosylation by CoGH1A, making it possible to be industrially used as the inducer to improving the cellulase productivity.