Over the past decade, disaccharide phosphorylases have received increasing attention as promising biocatalysts for glycoside synthesis. Unfortunately, these enzymes typically have a very low affinity for non-carbohydrate acceptors, which urges the addition of cosolvents to increase the dissolved concentration of these acceptors. However, commonly applied solvents such as methanol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are not compatible with many intended applications of carbohydrate-derived products. In this work, the solubility of a wide range of relevant acceptors was assessed in the presence of ionic liquids (ILs) as alternative and ‘green’ solvents. The IL AMMOENG 101 was found to be the most effective cosolvent for compounds as diverse as medium- and long-chain alcohols, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenolics and terpenes. Moreover, this IL was shown to be less deleterious to the stability and activity of sucrose phosphorylase than the commonly used dimethyl sulfoxide. To demonstrate the usefulness of this solvent system, a process for the resveratrol glycosylation was established in a buffer containing 20% AMMOENG 101, 1 M sucrose and saturated amounts of the acceptor. A single regioisomer 3-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-(E)-resveratrol was obtained as proven by NMR spectroscopy.

The industrial use of sucrose phosphorylase (SP), an interesting biocatalyst for the selective transfer of α-glucosyl residues to various acceptor molecules, has been hampered by a lack of long-term stability and low activity towards alternative substrates. We have recently shown that the stability of the SP from Bifidobacterium adolescentis can be significantly improved by the formation of a cross-linked enzyme aggregate (CLEA). In this work, it is shown that the transglucosylation activity of such a CLEA can also be improved by molecular imprinting with a suitable substrate. To obtain proof of concept, SP was imprinted with α-glucosyl glycerol and subsequently cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. As a consequence, the enzyme’s specific activity towards glycerol as acceptor substrate was increased two-fold while simultaneously providing an exceptional stability at 60 °C. This procedure can be performed in an aqueous environment and gives rise to a new enzyme formulation called iCLEA.