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�±-galactosidase (�±-D-galactoside galacto hydrolase, E.C. 3.2.1.22) catalyses the hydrolysis of �±-1, 6-linked terminal galactose
residues from oligosaccharides like melibiose, raffinose and stachyose as well as galactomannans, galactolipids and
galactoproteins. �±-galactosidase have plethora of applications in food & feed (improvement in nutritional value food/feed,
gelling properties of gums & beet sugar crystallization), medicine (blood group transformation, treatment of Anderson-Fabry�s
disease and xeno-rejection) and paper & pulp industry. In the present study, �±-galactosidase from locally available variety of
black gram (Vigna mungo) seeds was purified to homogeneity by using a combination of citric acid precipitation, ammonium
sulphate precipitation (25-60% saturation), DEAE-Cellulose, CM-Sepharose followed by ConA Sepharose 4B chromatography
with 39.1% yield and 1500-fold purification. The purified enzyme migrated as a single band (Mw�40 kDa) on silver stained
SDS-PAGE. Purified �±-galactosidase showed high activity in a narrow range of pH 4-5 with maximal activity at pH 5. The
enzyme had less than 20% of its activity at acidic pH (3) or alkaline pH (8). The optimum temperature of �±-galactosidase
was found to be 55o C. Most of the tested metal ions were found to reduce the activity of �±-galactosidase by up to 29% at 1
mM concentration. However, Hg++ drastically inhibited enzyme activity. The purified �±-galactosidase was immobilized on
chitosan iron oxide nanoparticles (�±-GAL-MNP) using glutaraldehyde (540 mM) as a cross linker with high immobilization
efficiency (â��90%). The �±-galactosidase loaded nanoparticles were further characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy
and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Further, cross-linked enzyme aggregates of crude �±-galactosidase were made
and also immobilized on chitosan iron oxide nanoparticles (�±-GAL-CLEA-MNP). The �±-GAL-MNP and �±-GAL-CLEA-MNP
showed good retention of activity after repeated usage.