Invertase Engineering for Enhanced Sucrose Hydrolysis in Food Production

Invertases (or beta-fructofuranosidases) are essential industrial enzymes used to hydrolyze sucrose into glucose and fructose, creating invert sugar syrup. This syrup is widely used in confectionery, baking, and beverage production for its desirable properties like higher sweetness, moisture retention, and resistance to crystallization. However, commercial invertases face critical limitations, including low conversion rates, diminished stability in highly concentrated sucrose solutions (substrate inhibition), and loss of activity during long-term storage, often leading producers to resort to less controllable and harsh acid hydrolysis.

Our specialized enzyme optimization services are focused on creating Invertase variants with superior activity and stability tailored for the food industry. Our core objectives include: improving activity and yield in highly concentrated sugar solutions; enhancing thermal stability for continuous, high-temperature processing; and increasing shelf-life stability within final syrup or confectionery formulations. Consult with our experts to design a customized strategy that ensures comprehensive and cost-effective sucrose conversion.

Challenges in Commercial Invertase Performance

The maximum efficacy and industrial application of Invertases are limited by the following technical barriers:

• Substrate/Product Inhibition: Enzyme activity is significantly reduced in high-sugar or high-syrup concentrations due to competitive inhibition by sucrose (substrate) or product sugars (glucose and fructose).
• Low Conversion Rate: Many native Invertases exhibit a low turnover number (kcat) at industrial processing conditions, requiring longer reaction times or higher enzyme dosage.
• Thermal Instability: Standard Invertases rapidly lose activity at the slightly elevated temperatures (55℃ to 65℃) often used in continuous flow reactors to prevent microbial contamination.
• Storage and Formulation Stability: Activity rapidly declines during long-term storage, especially when formulated directly within high-sugar or confectionery liquid solutions.

Our engineering platforms are dedicated to resolving these complex activity, stability, and formulation challenges.

Engineering Focus: Thermal Stability and Substrate Tolerance

We apply integrated protein engineering strategies to enhance your target Invertase:

Enhanced Stability in High-Sugar

             

Using active site engineering to reduce the susceptibility of the enzyme to substrate/product inhibition in highly concentrated sucrose or invert sugar solutions.

Optimized Thermal Stability

Enhancing the enzyme's structural rigidity and melting temperature to ensure superior performance during continuous, high-temperature processing without excessive activity loss.

Improved Storage Longevity

Implementing advanced stability engineering to protect the enzyme from inactivation during long-term storage in liquid syrup and final food products.

Increased Catalytic Efficiency

Maximizing the enzyme's turnover rate (kcat) to achieve faster, more cost-efficient sucrose conversion with lower enzyme dosage requirements.

Our experts are ready to apply these integrated capabilities to achieve next-generation Invertases with superior thermal stability and sugar tolerance.

Technology Platforms for Invertase Engineering

We leverage a suite of cutting-edge platforms to deliver highly functional enzyme variants:

AI-Driven Thermostable Discovery

Using AI-guided metagenomic analysis to discover naturally robust Invertase starting points from thermophilic organisms.

Directed Evolution for Sugar Tolerance

We utilize HTS platforms optimized to screen for variants that maintain high activity after prolonged incubation in highly concentrated sucrose solutions.

Rational Design for Thermal Stability

Using structural modeling to design mutations that enhance intramolecular interactions (e.g., disulfide bridges, salt bridges), improving the enzyme's thermal robustness.

Comprehensive Stability and Kinetic Profiling

We offer full stability profiling, including half-life measurement at 60℃ and activity testing under varying sucrose concentrations to measure inhibition resistance.

Integrated Enzyme Production and Immobilization

Specialized custom production services and options for enzyme immobilization to facilitate continuous processing in industrial bioreactors.

Partner with us to harness these platforms for next-generation, high-performance sucrose hydrolysis.

Project Flow: Invertase Optimization Workflow

Our enzyme optimization projects follow a flexible, milestone-driven workflow:

• Consultation and Goal Definition: Initial discussion to define the stability target (e.g., half-life at 60℃) and the minimum required activity in a high-concentration sucrose solution (e.g., 65% w/w).
• Design Strategy Proposal: We propose a tailored strategy involving Rational Design (for thermal stability) and/or Directed Evolution (for sugar tolerance), outlining the predicted timeframe.
• Library Construction and Screening: We execute mutagenesis and employ HTS platforms using high substrate concentration and thermal stress to identify lead variants.
• Iterative Optimization & Profiling: Successive rounds of evolution focus on maximizing both thermal stability and inhibition resistance against the specified temperature and sugar concentration targets.
• Final Deliverables: Delivery of the final Invertase variant along with detailed kinetic, thermal stability, sugar tolerance, and commercial formulation compatibility reports.

Technical communication is maintained throughout the project. We encourage potential clients to initiate a consultation to discuss their specific sugar processing challenges and explore how our technologies can achieve superior performance.

We provide comprehensive support, including:

• Detailed Kinetic Data, Thermal and pH Activity Profiles, and Residual Activity Reports in proprietary high-sugar formulations.
• Consultation on stability improvements, including potential formulation tweaks or immobilization strategies to maximize enzyme longevity.
• Experimental reports include complete raw data on mutagenesis libraries, HTS screening results, and final sucrose conversion efficacy testing.