Abstract
Maltase is an economically valuable enzyme that is used to catalyze the hydrolytic process of maltose and yields d-glucose as a product. In this study, the catalytic behavior of maltase was optimized under various physicochemical condition. Results indicated that bacterial maltase exhibited maximum catalytic activity at 45 °C and pH-6.5 after 5.0 min. It presented greater stability within 0.1 M K(2)HPO(4) buffer having pH-6.5 and showed 100 % activity even after 1.0 h. It retained 83.6 % and 45.0 % activity at 40 °C after 1.0 and 3.0 h, respectively. The enzyme retained 90.0 % activity at -20 °C even after 60 days. The molecular weight of enzyme was deduced to be 157.2 kDa as calculated using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and zymography. It was concluded that the characterized maltase has notable stability profile with reference to temperature, pH and other reaction conditions which anticipates its utilization in various starch and maltose hydrolyzing processes for the synthesis of glucose.