an enzyme which breaks down dextran, and is therefore useful for, among other things, preventing tooth decay
dextranase in American English
(ˈdekstrəˌneis, -ˌneiz)
noun
Biochemistry
an enzyme that hydrolyzes dextran to smaller oligosaccharides: used in dentifrices to dissolve dental plaque
Word origin
[1945–50; dextran + -ase]This word is first recorded in the period 1945–50. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: beeper, individual medley, poison pill, spin-off, taxi squad-ase is a suffix used in the names of enzymes. Other words that use the affix -ase include: lipase, phosphorylase, reverse transcriptase, transferase, zymase
Examples of 'dextranase' in a sentence
dextranase
It grew on dextran, and produced a thermoactive extracellular dextranase.
Afaf Baktir, Zumrotul Koiriyah, Ali Rohman 2010, 'A THERMOPHILIC MICROBE PRODUCING DEXTRANASE FROM HEATED SUGAR CANE', Indonesian Journal of Chemistryhttps://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/ijc/article/view/21794. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Dextranase treatment of polysaccharides yielded full digestion profiles for only 11 extracts.
Stanton Hector, Kyle Willard, Rolene Bauer, Inonge Mulako, Etienne Slabbert, JensKossmann, Gavin M George 2015, 'Diverse Exopolysaccharide Producing Bacteria Isolated from Milled Sugarcane: Implicationsfor Cane Spoilage and Sucrose Yield.', PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4692551?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Subsequently, the dextranase was used to produce dextran with specific molecular mass.
Ruijie Huang, Lei Zhong, Fengwei Xie, Liming Wei, Lanfang Gan, Xuejiao Wang, AnpingLiao 2019, 'Purification, Characterization and Degradation Performance of a Novel Dextranase fromPenicillium cyclopium CICC-4022', International Journal of Molecular Scienceshttp://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/6/1360. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
This dextranase was identified as an endodextranase, which specifically degraded the α-1,6 glucosidic bonds of dextran.
Ruijie Huang, Lei Zhong, Fengwei Xie, Liming Wei, Lanfang Gan, Xuejiao Wang, AnpingLiao 2019, 'Purification, Characterization and Degradation Performance of a Novel Dextranase fromPenicillium cyclopium CICC-4022', International Journal of Molecular Scienceshttp://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/6/1360. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)