Use of psychrophilic xylanases provides insight into the xylanase functionality in bread making.

The bread-improving potential of three psychrophilic xylanases from Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAH3A (XPH), Flavobacterium sp. MSY-2 (rXFH), and unknown bacterial origin (rXyn8) was compared to that of the mesophilic xylanases from Bacillus subtilis (XBS) and Aspergillus aculeatus (XAA). XPH, rXFH, and rXyn8 increased specific bread volumes up to 28%, 18%, and 18%, respectively, while XBS and XAA gave increases of 23% and 12%, respectively. This could be related to their substrate hydrolysis behavior. Xylanases with a high capacity to solubilize water-unextractable arabinoxylan (WU-AX) during mixing, such as XBS and XPH, increased bread volume more than xylanases that mainly solubilized WU-AX during fermentation, such as rXFH, rXyn8, and XAA. Irrespective of their intrinsic bread-improving potential, the dosages needed to increase bread volume to a similar extent were much lower for psychrophilic than for mesophilic xylanases. The xylanase efficiency mainly depended on the enzyme's temperature activity profile and its inhibition sensitivity.