• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.345-351
• /
• 1998

In an effort to develop a potent system for the production of various dp (degree of polymerization) chitooligosaccharides, 32 enzymes or microbial systems were screened for chitosanolytic acitivity using chitosan as a substrate. The efficiency of each enzyme system was evaluated by the changes of turbidity and viscosity of chitosan solution, the amount of precipitate and the reducing sugar-producing activity in the enzymatic reaction mixture. Based on these assay methods for the chitosanase activity, Bacillus sp. P2l out of 32 screened systems showed highly potent endochitosanase, which was comparable with a commercially available enzyme (E7). Chitooligosaccharides of dp 3-7 were separated by TLC as major enzymatic reaction products, suggesting that the chitosanase from Bacillus sp. P2l be endo-splitting type.