identifier: traitmech:000149
label: alpha-galactosidase activity
definition: A physiological enzyme-activity phenotype in which a cell produces active
  alpha-galactosidase enzymes that hydrolyze alpha-1,6-linked galactose residues in
  oligosaccharides and polymeric galactomannans.
definition_source: DOI:10.3109/07388551.2013.794124
trait_category: PHYSIOLOGY
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000059
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.3109/07388551.2013.794124
  snippet: The enzyme α-galactosidase (α-D-galactoside galactohydrolase; EC 3.2.1.22)
    catalyzes the hydrolysis of α-1,6-linked galactose residues in oligosaccharides
    and polymeric galactomannan.
  notes: Katrolia et al. define alpha-galactosidase as EC 3.2.1.22, an enzyme that
    hydrolyzes alpha-1,6-linked galactose residues, grounding the enzyme activity
    named by the organism-level phenotype.
- reference: DOI:10.1128/jcm.22.3.333-335.1985
  snippet: Selenomonas sputigena was positive for α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase,
    and α-glucosidase (API ZYM strip) and for α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, and α-galactosidase
    (API An-Ident strip).
  notes: Tanner et al. detected alpha-galactosidase in Selenomonas sputigena with
    the API ZYM enzyme activity panel and the API An-Ident strip.
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:69823
  taxon_label: Selenomonas sputigena
  note: Tanner et al. reported Selenomonas sputigena as positive for alpha-galactosidase
    in API ZYM and API An-Ident enzyme activity panels.
  reference: DOI:10.1128/jcm.22.3.333-335.1985
discussions:
- discussion_id: alpha-galactosidase-activity-xref-gap
  prompt: Resolve an exact external ontology class for alpha-galactosidase activity
    before adding a TraitRecord xref.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: GO:0004557 denotes the alpha-galactosidase/melibiase molecular function
    rather than the organism-level alpha-galactosidase production phenotype, so it
    is appropriate as a causal-node grounding rather than an equivalent TraitRecord
    xref.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-09-11'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-09-11T23:46:20Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Minted alpha-galactosidase activity as a DOI-backed TraitRecord after a
    repository-wide duplicate review covering ignored and hidden files; METPO has
    no exact alpha-galactosidase activity class yet.
  llm_assisted: true