Allolactose is a

disaccharide A disaccharide (also called a double sugar or ''biose'') is the sugar formed when two monosaccharides are joined by glycosidic linkage. Like monosaccharides, disaccharides are simple sugars soluble in water. Three common examples are sucrose, ...

similar to

lactose Lactose is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose and has the molecular formula C12H22O11. Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk (by mass). The name comes from (Genitive case, gen. ), the Latin word for milk, plus the suffix ''-o ...

. It consists of the

monosaccharide Monosaccharides (from Greek '' monos'': single, '' sacchar'': sugar), also called simple sugars, are the simplest forms of sugar and the most basic units (monomers) from which all carbohydrates are built. Chemically, monosaccharides are polyhy ...

s D-

galactose Galactose (, ''wikt:galacto-, galacto-'' + ''wikt:-ose#Suffix 2, -ose'', ), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweetness, sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epime ...

and D-

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

linked through a β1-6

glycosidic linkage A glycosidic bond or glycosidic linkage is a type of ether bond that joins a carbohydrate (sugar) molecule to another group, which may or may not be another carbohydrate. A glycosidic bond is formed between the hemiacetal or hemiketal group o ...

instead of the β1-4 linkage of lactose. It may arise from the occasional transglycosylation of lactose by

β-galactosidase β-Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23, beta-gal or β-gal; systematic name β-D-galactoside galactohydrolase) is a glycoside hydrolase enzyme that catalyzes hydrolysis of terminal non-reducing β-D-galactose residues in β-D-galactosides. (This enzym ...

. It is an

inducer In molecular biology, an inducer is a molecule that regulates gene expression. An inducer functions in two ways; namely: *By disabling repressors. The gene is expressed because an inducer binds to the repressor. The binding of the inducer to the r ...

of the ''lac'' operon in ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

'' and many other enteric bacteria. It binds to a subunit of the tetrameric ''lac'' repressor, which results in conformational changes and reduces the binding affinity of the ''lac'' repressor to the ''lac'' operator, thereby dissociating it from the ''lac'' operator. The absence of the repressor allows the transcription of the ''lac'' operon to proceed. A non-hydrolyzable analog of allolactose, isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), is normally used in molecular biology to induce the ''lac'' operon. Mechanism of Allolactose Formation: β-Galactosidase (lacZ) plays a dual role in the lac operon system. Not only does it break down lactose into glucose and galactose, but it also catalyzes the transformation of lactose into allolactose, the molecule that induces the lac operon. The enzyme facilitates this conversion via a glucose-binding site, which temporarily holds glucose after cleavage from lactose. Despite the enzyme’s relatively low affinity for glucose, the exact details of this glucose-binding site have remained difficult to pinpoint. Research using a modified version of β-galactosidase (G794A) has provided structural insights, confirming that the glucose in the trapped allolactose molecule binds to a specific site on the enzyme. Incorporating Allolactose in Research: Recent studies, such as the work by Toba, Watanabe, and Adachi (1982), have demonstrated the presence of non-lactose disaccharides, including allolactose (6-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-D-glucose) and 6-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-D-galactose, in commercially available yogurt. These disaccharides, alongside lactose and galactose, were identified through sophisticated gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) and mass spectrometry. The research highlighted that while lactose and galactose were found in higher concentrations (ranging from 2.11% to 3.13% and 1.11% to 1.52%, respectively), allolactose and 6-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-D-galactose were present in much smaller quantities (0.03% to 0.09%). The ability to isolate these disaccharides from yogurt using methods like dialysis and chromatography has opened new insights into the sugar composition of yogurt, beyond the more commonly studied lactose and galactose.

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* {{MeshName, allolactose
Illustration of function
Disaccharides

See also

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External links