NEW α-L-FUCOSIDASE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a new α-L-fucosidase having a new substrate specificity and to provide a method for producing the new α-L-fucosidase economically and advantageously. SOLUTION: This method for producing the α-L-fucoside comprises extracting the α-L-fucosidase from the internal organ of sea urchin with an aqueous medium to give an extracted solution and purifying the extracted solution. The α-L-fucosidase hydrolyzes an α-L-fucoside bond of p-nitrophenyl-α-L-fucoside or a saccharide containing a fucose residue bonded through an α-1-3 bond to a sugar chain reducing end as a substrate and liberates L-fucose. The α-L- fucosidase has the optimum pH in the vicinity of 2.5 and 6.5 in the case of p-nitrophenyl-α-L-fucoside as a substrate, about 52,000 molecular weight by a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis method and about 200,000 by a gel filtration method. The α-L-fucosidase is industrially advantageously produced from the internal organ of sea urchin and the substrate specificity of the α-L-fucosidase is used for structural analysis of complex carbohydrate sugar chain and functional study of sugar chain. COPYRIGHT: (C)2001,JPO