β-galactosidase (enzymatic class 3.2.1.23) is one of the dairy industry's most important and widely used enzymes. The enzyme is part of a large family known to catalyze hydrolysis and transglycosylation reactions. Its hydrolytic activity is commonly used to decrease lactose content in dairy products, while its transglycosylase activity has recently been used to synthesize galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS). During the past couple of years, researchers have focused on studying β-galactosidase isolated and purified from lactic acid bacteria. This review will focus on β-galactosidase purified and characterized from what used to be the Lactobacillus genera. Furthermore, particular emphasis is given to its kinetics, biochemical characteristics, GOS production, market, and utilization by Lactobacilllaceae species.
Keywords: galacto-oligosaccharides; glycosylase hydrolases; kinetic; lacLM; β-galactosidase.
© 2023, The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. and Fass Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).