invertase

Definition

An enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose (invert sugar), used by bees to produce honey and in the food industry to soften chocolate.

Etymology

From invert + -ase.

Example Sentences

• "The costs incurred for the processing of sucrose with invertase could be considerably reduced with the introduction of immobilised invertases, by adopting technology similar to that developed for glucose isomerase."
• "The disaccharide sucrose and the trisaccharide raffinose are both substrates of invertase. Invertase is encoded by the SUC genes from which six unlinked loci have been identified (SUC1-SUC5, SUC7), which are dipersed through the yeast genome (Lampen, 1968; Ouwehand and van Wijk, 1972; Ottolenghi, 1971)."
• "Up-regulation of these invertases is a common response to infection (Hall and Williams, 2000)."