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Comparative Study of Activity and Heat Stability of Limit Dextrinase in 16 Barley Cultivars

¹Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Plant Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China. ²College of Life Science, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China. ³Corresponding author. Phone: 027-68756170. Fax: 027-68756010. E-mail address: mxsun@whu.edu.cn

We conducted a comprehensive study of 15 cultivars of Chinese barley and one cultivar of European barley to examine and compare the activity and heat stability of limit dextrinase (LD) among them. Our results revealed that the enzymatic activity of LD drops dramatically at incubation temperatures >65°C, indicating that 65°C is the point of incubation temperature sensitivity for this enzyme. Compared with the European barley cultivar Triumph, the levels of enzymatic activity and heat stability of LD in most Chinese barley cultivars included in this study were low, except for Jipi 2 and 92001, which were nearly equal to Triumph. We also found that the activity and heat stability of LD were strongly influenced by the genotype and growth environment of the cultivar, which suggests that genetic manipulation and optimal cultivation conditions may be useful in producing high-quality barley for the brewing industry.