{"id":222449,"date":"2025-09-25T04:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/key-enzyme-for-high-value-natural-sweetener-production-identified-and-characterized"},"modified":"2025-09-25T04:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:25:10","slug":"key-enzyme-for-high-value-natural-sweetener-production-identified-and-characterized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/key-enzyme-for-high-value-natural-sweetener-production-identified-and-characterized","title":{"rendered":"Key enzyme for high-value natural sweetener production identified and characterized"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/key-enzyme-for-high-value-natural-sweetener-production-identified-and-characterized2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Steviol glycosides, natural sweeteners extracted from Stevia rebaudiana, are widely used as sucrose substitutes due to their high sweetness and low caloric value. Among them, Rebaudioside M (Reb M) is regarded as a next-generation, high-value steviol glycoside product because of its intense sweetness and superior taste profile. However, the natural abundance of Reb M in Stevia is extremely low.<\/p>\n<p>Efficient biosynthetic methods are needed to meet market demand. Until now, the key enzyme catalyzing the conversion of Rebaudioside D (Reb D) to Reb M in the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/biosynthetic+pathway\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">biosynthetic pathway<\/a> has not been identified, and it is generally assumed to be UGT76G1. However, UGT76G1 exhibits strict regioselectivity for the C13 position of steviol glycosides, while its <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/catalytic+activity\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">catalytic activity<\/a> at the C19 position is very weak.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2504698122\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> published in the <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i> on September 17, a team led by Prof. Yin Heng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified the key glycosyltransferase that catalyzes the conversion of Reb D to Reb M, and revealed the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/molecular+mechanism\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">molecular mechanism<\/a> underlying its substrate regioselectivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steviol glycosides, natural sweeteners extracted from Stevia rebaudiana, are widely used as sucrose substitutes due to their high sweetness and low caloric value. Among them, Rebaudioside M (Reb M) is regarded as a next-generation, high-value steviol glycoside product because of its intense sweetness and superior taste profile. However, the natural abundance of Reb M in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}