• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2000

Chitin synthases are identified as key enzymes of chitin biosynthesis in most of the fungi. Among them, chitin synthase II has been reported to be and essential enzyme in chitin biosynthesis, and exists as a membrane-bound form. To search and screen new antifungal agents from natural resources to inhibit chitin synthase II, the assay conditions were established using the enzyme isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae ECY38-38A(pAS6) that overproduces only chitin synthase II. This enzyme was activated only by partial proteolysis with trypsin. Its actibity reached the maximum at $80{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ of trypsin and was strongly stimulated by 2.0 mM $Co^{2+}$, 1.0 nM UDP-[$^{14}C$]-GicNAc, and 32 mM free-GlcNAc. Under these assay conditions, the highest chitin synthase II activity was observed by incubation at $30^{\circ}C$ for 90 min. However, and extremely narrow range of organic solvents up to as much as 25% of DMSO and 25% of MeOH was useful for determining optimal assay conditions. After a search or potent inhibitors of chitin synthase II from natural resources, prodigiosin was isolated from Serratia marcescens and purified by solvent extration and silica gel column chromatographies. The structure of prodigiosin was determined by UV, IR, Mass spectral, and NMR spectral analyses. Its molecular weight and formula were found to be 323 and $C_{20}H_{25}N_{3}O$, respectively. Prodigiosin ingibited chitin synthase II by 50% at the concentration of $115{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 1998

Chitin is known as biodegradable natural polymer. But, in spite of various application of chitin from waste marine sources, commercial use of chitin has been limited due to highly resistance to chemicals and the absense of proper solvents. Therefore, we studied that another viscosity chitosan were prepared from chitin which were deacetylated under various concentration of NaOH solution, reaction time and temperature by the application of Mirna's method. The major parameters for these manufacturing methods were found to be concentration of alkali solution, reaction time and temperature etc. Besides, we studied that various chitosan derivatives were prepared from chitin by crosslinkage with epichlorohydrin and 1,3-dichloropropanol. The effects of these parameters on another viscosity(molecular weight) chitosan and crosslinked chitosan dervatives were investigated by various analysis apparatus. SEM analysis showed that both chitin and chitosan had a particle shaped morphology and another molecular weight chitosan according to the particle size was much smaller than that of chitin.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 1998

This study was performed to investigate the effects of chitin, chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan on the cadmium accumulation in liver and kidney of catfish. The experimental groups were divided into four independent groups which were one control group and three experimental groups by cadmium alone treatment or chitin, chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan which cadmium. in order to investigate the effects of chitin, chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan on the cadmium accumulation in liver and kidney of catfish, the cadmium concentration, the metallothionein level were measured. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The cadmium concentrations in liver and kidney of catfish in cadmium alone treatment group were similar to that of the chitin treatment group, but chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan treatment groups were significantly decreased. 2. The metallothionein levels in liver and kidney of catfish alone treatment group were similar to that of the chitin treatment group, but chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan treatment groups were significantly increased. In conclusion, this study revealed the effect of chitin, chitosan and dithiocarbamate chitosan against cadmium accumulation in liver and kidney of catfish. It exhibited the highest effect at dithiocarbamate chitosan treatment group.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.270-278
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• 1991

Carboxymethyl chitin(CM-chitin) was prepared by the reaction of alkali chitin with monochloroacetic acid in isopropyl alcohol. According to the pH variation, the adsorptivity of this chelating polymer to the alkali-earth metal ions such as $Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+}$, $Sr^{2+}$, $Ba^{2+}$ ions was determined by batch method. The adsorption tendency of this chelating polymer to most metal ions was increased with the increase of pH. The highest degree of adsorption was observed toward $Ca^{2+}$ ion among the alkali-earth metal ions. The selectivity adsorption property toward $Ca^{2+}$ ion was examined in the solution of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ ions, and it was observed that CM-chitin showed excellent selectivity to $Ca^{2+}$ ion than $Mg^{2+}$ ion. $Mg^{2+}$ ion bound to CM-chitin molecule in the presence of $Ca^{2+}$ ion owing to low equilibrium constant. In the adsorption experiment of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ ions to the CM-chitin under coexistence of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ ions, it observed that adsorptivity of only $Ca^{2+}$ ions was not affected by these monovalent cations.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.451-456
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• 1995

To elucidate the intrinsic rheological properties of carboxymethyl chitin (CM-chitin) from the shell of red snow cyab (Chinonecetes japonicus), the configuration and polyelectrolyte behavior of CM-chitin in low concentration solution were investigated. Unperturbed dimensions were ranged from $127{\AA}\;to\;113{\AA}$ as root mean square end-to-end distance$(r_0)$, $52{\AA}$ to $46{\AA}$ as radius of gyration$(S_0)$. The intramolecular expansion tarter(a) was not varied with molecular weight and was 2.1. And effective bond length $(b_0)$ was $14.5{\AA}$. In perturbed condition, Flory constant was $2.35\times10^{21}$. When ionic strength were 0.02 and 1.0, intrinsic viscosity were 1.95dl/g and 1,06 dl/g, respectively. These results suggested that CM-chitin is a polyelectrolyte in aqueous media. At infinite ionic strength, intrinsic viscosity was 0.91dl/g. The intrinsic stiffness of CM-chitin backbone was estimated by evaluating the stiffness parameter (B) as 0.11 and agreed well with the results of k-carrageenan.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.349-354
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• 2002

In order to decolorize the reactive dye wastewater, we investigated the dye-adsorption ability of chitin, which was natural polymer obtained from shrimp shell. Chitin particle(less than 250 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$n) was prepared from shrimp shells in the processes of decalcification in aqueous hydrochloric acid solution and deproteination in aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. The particle size of chitin was controlled to less than 250 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. Three tripes of the reactive dyes-C.I. Reactive Red 120, C.I. Reactive red 241 and C.I. Reactive Black 5-were used. Dye adsorption ability of chitin was investigated by dipping the particle in the dyebaths of concentration of 0.0l%, 0.03% and 0.05% for various periods of time(1,3,5, 10,20,40,80,160minutes). The influence of addition of salt(Na$_2$SO$_4$) and alkali to the dyebaths on dye-absorption was also investigated. We obtained the following results fur the dye-absolution ability of chitin in the dyebaths of three types of reactive dyes. 1) The amount of dye uptake by chitin was increased by addition of salt to the dyebaths. 2) As the concentration of alkali became higher than 3g/I, the amount of dye uptake by chitin was increased. Chitin showed good dye-adsorption ability, when the alkali concentration was high. 3) Chitin showed equal dye uptake in the three types of dyebaths when the dye concentration was 0.0l%. Over 90% of dyestuffs was adsorbed from the dyebaths in ten minutes. When the dye concentration was higher, better adsorption ability was showed in a dye bath of Reactive black 5 than in the others. When the dye concentration was 0.03%, 90% of Reactive red 120 and Reactive red 241 was adsorbed in 40 minutes and the same of Reactive black 5 in 10 minutes. When the dye concentration was 0.05%, 9()% of Reactive red 120 was adsorbed in 80 minutes, and Reactive black 5 in to minutes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.422-425
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• 1998

Chitin synthase null-mutants propagate in yeast form in RPMI medium with suppression of hyphal growth. This hyphal suppression is also observed in the wild type culture grown in RPMI medium supplemented with deer antler extract. To identify the possible target of deer antler extract, the enzymatic activities of chitin synthases were examined. The enzymatic activities of three chitin synthases, CAChsl, CAChs2, and CAChs3, were found to be differentially inhibited by deer antler extract. Of them, CAChsl, was the most sensitive to the extract. These results indicate that deer antler extract causes hyphal suppression, which resembles the effects of chitin synthase deletion, probably through direct inhibition of chitin synthases.

• Mycobiology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.179-182
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• 2001

Chitin synthases(UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine: chitin 4-$\beta$-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminyl transferase, EC 2.4.1.16) catalyze the synthesis of chitin from UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Two zymogenic type of chitin synthase gene(TmCHS1 and TmCHS2) were amplified and its nucleotide sequences were determined. By the amino acid comparison and UPGMA tree grouping, TmChs1 and TmChs2 were classified as class II and class IV chitin synthases respectively. The class II type TmChs1 was grouped with others of Agaricales ectomycorrhizal mushroom. Additionally the phylogenetic tree was well adapted to Hymenomycete previously classified by morphological and physiological characteristics.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

The enzymatic hydrolysis of chitin has been studied for almost a century, and early work established that at least two enzymes are required, a chitinase that mainly yields the disaccharide N,N'-diacetylchitobiose, or $(GlcNAc)_2$, and a "chitobiase", or ${\beta}$-N-acetylglucosaminidase, which gives the final product G1cNAc. This pathway has not been completely identified but has remained the central concept for the chitin catabolism through the $20^{th}$ century1 including in marine bacteria. However, the chitin catabolic cascade is quite complex, as described in this review. This report describes three biologically functional genes involved in the chitin catabolic cascade of Vibrios in an attempt to better understand the metabolic pathway of chitin.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 1997

The phylogenetic study of Penicilium chrysogenum was performed based on amino acid sequence comparison of chitin synthase. Phylogenetic trees were constructed with the deduced amino acid sequences of the highly conserved region of chitin synthease gene fragments amplified by PCR. The BlasP similarity searcch and the bootstrap analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of chitin synthase from P. chrysogenum with those form other fungi showed a close evolutionary relationship of Penicillium to ascomycetous fungi, especially to genus Aspergilus. The result from bootstrap analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of the Class II chitin synthase from ascomyceteous fungi supported the usefulness of the Class II chitin synthease for phylogenetic study of filamentous fungi.