Enhancing the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus and the enzymatic conversion of rutin to isoquercitrin by adding sorbitol

BACKGROUND: Thermally stable α-L-rhamnosidase with cleaving terminal α-L-rhamnose activity has great potential in industrial application. Therefore, it is necessary to find a proper method to improve the thermal stability of α-L-rhamnosidase. RESULTS: In this study, addition of sorbitol has been found to increase the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus at temperatures ranging from 65 °C to 80 °C. Half-life and activation free energy with addition of 2.0 M sorbitol at 70 °C were increased by 17.2-fold, 8.2 kJ/mol, respectively. The analyses of the results of fluorescence spectroscopy and CD have indicated that sorbitol helped to protect the tertiary and secondary structure of α-L-rhamnosidase. Moreover, the isoquercitrin yield increased from 60.01 to 96.43% with the addition of 1.5 M of sorbitol at 70 °C. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide an effective approach for enhancing the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus, which makes it a good candidate for industrial processes of isoquercitrin preparation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-017-0342-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.