Enzyme-catalyzed organic synthesis of sucrose and trehalose with in situ regeneration of UDP-glucose.

This paper describes cell-free enzymatic syntheses of sucrose and trehalose using partially-purified preparations of sucrose and trehalose synthetase. The coupling of the regeneration of uridine-5'-diphosphoglucose (UDP-Glc) with synthesis of the disaccharide offers a practical route to millimol quantities of these carbohydrates. The syntheses used pyruvate kinase, UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase, and inorganic pyrophosphatase, and the regenerated UDP-Glc was cycled approximately 10 times.