OLIGOSACCHARIDES 



107 



Table 1. Transglycosidase Activity in Fungi 



Fungi 

 Aspergillus spp. (9, 10, 16, 66, 169, 170) 

 Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spinulosum (15) 

 Aspergillus spp. (47a, 169, 173, 174), Peni- 

 cillium chrysogenum (202) 

 Aspergillus oryzae (171, 172) 

 Aspergillus niger (11, 12), 

 Chaetomium globosum (48), 

 Myrothecium verrucaria (119) 

 Aspergillus spp. (113, 226) 

 Penicillium chrysogenum (226) 

 Aspergillus oryzae (244, 245) 



acting on sucrose or raffinose (Table 1). A fructose-enzyme complex 

 is postulated, as in Equations 3, 4, and 5 above. In Penicillium 

 spinulosum there is no evidence for any sucrase other than the 

 transfructosidase, but in Aspergillus oryzae there is probably a second 

 enzyme acting on sucrose (16). Paper chromatography of the enzymes 

 of A. oryzae similarly suggests that more than one sucrase is present 

 (112). 



Sucrase, acting as it does on /3-fructofuranosides, is instrumental in 

 the metabolism of raffinose and stachyose. 



Mandels (143) presents indirect evidence for the non-hydrolytic 

 metabolism of sucrose by spores of Myrothecium verrucaria, possibly 

 to be credited to a sucrose phosphorylase of the type known in bacteria. 



Maltose is used as a source of carbon by almost all fungi (Chapter 

 3). Correspondingly, beginning with the work of Bourquelot (33), we 

 find that the enzyme maltase is found in almost every fungus and 

 actinomycete investigated, although quantitative differences between 

 strains are common (127). It has been claimed that Polyporus 

 betulinus lacks maltase (138), and the chytrids which are unable to 

 grow on maltose (Chapter 3) may be found to lack the enzyme. 



Maltase is an a-glucosidase and is found in bacteria, animals, and 

 higher plants. The earlier separation of fungus from yeast maltase 

 as a "glucomaltase" is probably not valid, but the two maltases are 

 not identical (89). As with sucrase, recent investigations have estab- 

 lished in fungi the existence of a transglycosidase acting on maltose to 

 form a series of transient oligosaccharides (Table 1). The existence 

 of a specific hydrolase for maltose may be doubted, but it is not yet 

 known whether the transglucosidase of Aspergillus niger and A. oryzae, 

 the only fungi so far studied, is of general occurrence as a single 



