• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.408-413
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• 1997

It was studied in order to improve the yield of serrapeptase production in fermentation that organic nitrogen sources play important roles not only as inducer, repressor and activator, but also nitrogen sources. From the investigation of the effect of Na-caseinate on the induction of serrapeptase production, it was elucidated that real inducer was leucine and strong repressor was cysteine, which were produced through hydrolysis of proteins. Serrapeptase production was strongly induced by Na-caseinate in culture time 12 hrs, but was weakly induced before and after that time. Therefore fed batch culture where partial amount of Na-caseinate is added in 12 hrs, is better than batch culture where total amount of Na-caseinate is added at the beginning. Cysteine, methionine, MgSO$_{4}$, and so on, sulfur-containing materials, repressed the serrapeptase production. In the addition of mineral salts, chlorinated salts is better than sulfated salts because of sulfur repression. The synergic effect of soybean meal with Na-caseinate on the serrapeptase production resulted from Mn$^{2+}$ contained in soybean meal, of which the optimal concentration is 4 mM in enzyme production.