Stevioside is a non-caloric, natural, high-intensity sweetener. However, the bitter aftertaste of stevioside restricts its utilization for human consumption and limits its application in the food industry. In this study, a high efficiency enzymatic modification system was investigated to improve stevioside taste quality. A cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) producing strain Paenibacillus sp. CGMCC 5316 was isolated from Stevia planting soil. With starch as glycosyl donor, this CGTase can transform stevioside into a single specific product which is an isomer of rebaudioside A and identified as mono-glycosylated stevioside . The taste of stevioside is improved noticeably by generating mono-glycosylated stevioside, which possesses a sucrose-like taste and has sweetness increased significantly by 35.4 %. Next, the parameters influencing CGTase production were optimized. Compared to initial conditions, CGTase activity increased by 214.7 % under optimum conditions of 3.9 g/L starch, 17.9 g/L tryptone, and 67.6 h of culture time, and the transglycosylation rate of stevioside was remarkably increased by 284.8 %, reaching 85.6 %. This CGTase modification system provides a promising solution for improving the sweetness and taste quality of stevioside. The efficiency of CGTase transformation can be greatly increased by optimizing the culture conditions of Paenibacillus sp. CGMCC 5316.
