Abstract
Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal fungus and has been used for improvements of health or prevention of certain diseases in Asia for thousands of years. Despite numerous kinds of triterpenoids having been identified from G. lucidum, few natural Ganoderma triterpenoids exist in the form of glycosides (saponins). To expand the diversity of Ganoderma triterpenoids and find rare Ganoderma saponins, ganoderic acid F (GAF), a Ganoderma triterpenoid, was biotransformed by a glycosyltransferase (BsGT110) from Bacillus subtilis ATCC (American type culture collection) 6633. The results showed that BsGT110 catalyzed biotransformation of GAF to produce a metabolite, which was confirmed as a GAF glucoside by mass–mass spectroscopy. The GAF glucoside showed 89-fold higher aqueous solubility than that of GAF. The present study highlights the utility of BsGT110 in the production of novel Ganoderma triterpenoid saponins, and the newly identified and highly soluble GAF glucoside can be studied for its bioactivity in the future.