• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.61 no.3
• /
• pp.233-238
• /
• 2018

Chitinases are glycosyl hydrolases which cleave the ${\beta}$-1,4 linkage of chitin into oligo or monomers of N-acetylglucosamine. These bacterial enzymes have been used for a wide range of applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, we isolated two potential chitinolytic strains, BAO-01 and BAO-02, from salt-fermented shrimp, which were shown to belong to the genus Salinivibrio through genetic characterization using 16S rRNA. These isolates were gram-positive, rod-shaped, and non-spore forming. BAO-01 showed greater growth and chitinase activity than BAO-02 after the incubation at $37^{\circ}C$ for 4 days. Both strains grew on a wide range of carbon and nitrogen sources, pH values, temperatures, and salt levels. However, they showed minor biochemical differences. In addition, their antimicrobial activities against foodborne pathogens and antibiotic susceptibilities were evaluated. These Salinivibrio spp. did not show bioamine production, hemolytic activity, and mucin degradation. Therefore, the in vitro screening results suggested that these bacteria could be widely used as new candidates for chitin hydrolyzation and seafood fermentation.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.312-315
• /
• 2005

Coprinellus congregatus, known as an inky cap, is autolysed into ink soon after the maturation of the mushrooms. Electron microscopy was used to examine the ultrastructural changes associated with the autolysis as an initial step to understand the role of hydrolytic enzymes in this process. During the early stages of maturation of the mushrooms, most of cytoplasm of hymenial and subhymenial tissues seemed to be transported to the developing basidiospores. The depletion of cytoplasm within the tissues and the maturation of the basidiospores may initiate the degradation of the cell walls of the tissues. Both hymenial and subhymenial tissues seemed to degraded at the same time. This study suggested that the critical steps in the autolysis of mushrooms is not the degradation of the cytoplasm, but the degradation of the cell wall by hydrolytic enzymes such as chitinases.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.152-158
• /
• 2016

The cause of death was investigated with several dead cabbage moth larvae in breeding box. Bacterial strains were isolated and selected from the dead larvae by bioassay. One of them was identified as Serratia marcescens used by morphological characteristics and gene sequencing. S. marcescens were cultured by Luria Bertani (LB) media broth for bioassay. When 100-fold dilution of culture broth to third larvae of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, it was showed a 100% mortality at 2 days after treatment, and only 10-fold dilution of supernatant liquid was showed 86.6% mortality. When the culture broth of S. marcescens was applied to the larvae of beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, contact and feeding toxicity were 20 and 8% of mortality, respectively. Otherwise, when the culture broth of S. marcescens was applied to 5 major plant pathogens, antibacterial activities against Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Phytophthora capsici and Sclerotinias clerotiorum were 4.7, 11.3, 20, 15.7 and 42.6%, respectively. Also, degradation ability of S. marcescens against protein and chitin were examined.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.303-307
• /
• 1996

The degree of autolysis and presence of cell-wall degrading enzymes in an anaerobic ruminal fungus, Piromyces communis OTSI, grown in liquid medium, was monitored to evaluate the effect of self-digestion on fungal biomass. After a 30 days incubation period fungal dry weight decreased by 45% and the cell wall component chitin decreased by 22%. Chitinase activity detected in the supernatant was mainly of the endotype and peaked at day 6 of the incubation. ${\beta}-1$, 3-glucanase was detected from day 4 and increased throughout the incubation period. Autolysis was a slow process, and under natural conditions it is unlikely that it plays a significant role in the degradation of the spent fungal vegetative stage in the rumen.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.90-98
• /
• 2003

An allium rhizobacterium Serratia plymuthica AL-1 was previously selected as a biocontrol agent of allium white rot. The chitinase from S. plymuthica AL-1 produced in medium containing colloidal chitin was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation (40~70%), affinity adsorption, column chromatography on DEAE-sephadex A-50 and sephadex C-200 gel filtration. The enzyme was purified 10.8-fold with a yield of 7.3% from the starting culture broth. The purified chtinase gave a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, it's molecular weight was estimated to be 55 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified enzyme were pH 5.5 and $55^{\circ}C$, respectively and it is stable up to $50^{\circ}C$ and maintains around 90% of its activity for 60min. The enzyme were activated by $Ca^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ and inhibited by $Cu^{2+}$, SDS, $\rho$-CMB, MIA, respectively. The purified chitinase showed broad spectrum of antifungal activities against plant pathogenic fungi Sclerotium cepivoruin, Alternana alternnta, Colletotrichum glceosporioidrs, Phoma sp., Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Stemphylium solani, Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. niveum but rarely inhibited Phytophthora capsici and Pythium ultimum.. The purified chitinase from S. plymuthica AL-1 caused swelling, lysis, deceleration and degradation of the hyphal tips of S. sczerotiorum causing allium white rot. It suggest that S. prymuthica AL-1 chitinase play an important part in the bifunctional chitinase / lysozyme activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.23 no.11
• /
• pp.1519-1528
• /
• 2013

Bacillus pumilus SG2, a halotolerant strain, expresses two major chitinases designated ChiS and ChiL that were induced by chitin and secreted into the supernatant. The present work aimed to obtain a mutant with higher chitinolytic activity through mutagenesis of Bacillus pumilus SG2 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on chitin agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for degradation of chitin under different conditions. A mutant designated AV2-9 was selected owing to its higher chitinase activity. To search for possible mutations in the whole operon including ChiS and ChiL, the entire chitinase operon, including the intergenic region, promoter, and two areas corresponding to the ChiS and ChiL ORF, was suquenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the complete chitinase operon from the SG2 and AV2-9 strains showed the presence of a mutation in the catalytic domain (GH18) of chitinase (ChiL). The results demonstrated that a single base change had occurred in the ChiL sequence in AV2-9. The wild-type chitinase, ChiL, and the mutant (designated ChiLm) were cloned, expressed, and purified in E. coli. Both enzymes showed similar profiles of activity at different ranges of pH, NaCl concentration, and temperature, but the mutant enzyme showed approximately 30% higher catalytic activity under all the conditions tested. The results obtained in this study showed that the thermal stability of chitinase increased in the mutant strain. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict changes in the stability of proteins caused by mutation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.134-140
• /
• 1994

An antagonistic bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri YPL-1 liberated extracellular chitinase and $\beta$-1,3-glucanase which are key enzymes in the decomposition of fungal hyphal walls. The lytic enzymes caused abnormal swelling and retreating at the hyphal tips of plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium solani in a dual culture. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the hyphal degradation of F. solani in the regions interacting with P. stutzeri YPL-1. The production of chitinase and properties of a crude preparation of the enzyme from P. stutzeri YPL-1 were investigated. Peak of the chitinase activity was detected after 4 hr of cultivation. The enzyme had optimum temperature and pH of 50$^{\circ}C$ and pH 5.3, respectively. The enzyme was stable in the pH range of 3.5 to 6.0 up to 50$^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was significantly inhibited by metal compounds such as $HgCl_2$, but was stimulated by $CoCl_2$. P. stutzeri YPL-1 produced high levels of the enzyme after 84 hr of incubation. Among the tested carbon sources, chitin was the most effective for the enzyme production, at the concentration level of 3%. As a source of nitrogen, peptone was the best for the enzyme production, at the concentration level of 4%. The maximum amount of enzyme was produced by cultivating the bacterium at a medium of initial pH 6.8.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.59-67
• /
• 2018

A xylanolytic and cellulolytic anaerobic bacterium strain CtC72 was isolated from cattle rumen liquor. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain CtC72 shared only 97.78% homology with its nearest phylogenetic affiliate Actinomyces ruminicola, showing its novelty. The strain could grow on medium containing xylan, carboxymethyl cellulose and avicel producing $CO_2$, acetate, and ethanol as major fermentation products. The whole genome analysis of the strain CtC72 exhibited a broad range of carbohydrate-active enzymes required for the breakdown and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass. Genes related to the production of ethanol and stress tolerance were also detected. Further there were several unique genes in CtC72 for chitin degradation, pectin utilization, sugar utilization, and stress response in comparison with Actinomyces ruminicola. The results show that the strain CtC72, a putative novel bacterium can be used for lignocellulosic biomass based biotechnological applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 1998.11a
• /
• pp.172-173
• /
• 1998

A research collection of Pseudomons solanacearum bacteria, a pathogen causing ‘bacteria wilt’ disease of more than 265 plant species, represented for northern provinces of Vietnam has recently been established and was saved for examination of antifungal activity in their culture fluids. All strains used in this work have been isolated from infected tomato, potato, and groundnut collected from production fields and they express different levels of virulence on their host plants. Cell-free culture fluids of these strains were tested for antifungal activity (to inhibit growth of mycelium and to destroy germination tube of fungal spores) on a number of fungi that either infect or associate with vegetable crops of Solanaceae family (tomato, potato, pepers...), fruit plants (banana), and even well-known by Vietnamese traditional medicine herbal plants belonging to Trifoliatus, Schefflera, Homalomena and Panax genera (Araliaceae family) of which roots are used as a resource of the herbal material. The antifungal activity was found in nearly all strains tested. Result of study on chitin, CMC, tween 80 and casein degradation abilities of the latter suggested that antifungal activity of positively-found strains may be due to their ability of extracelluar chitinase's excretion that destroy fungal cell wall.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.211-217
• /
• 1992

Stabilization of liposomes against degradation by bile salts has been investigated in order to develop a liposomal model system for oral drug delivery. Two polysaccharides, amylopectin (AP) and chitin (CT), were employed to coat both empty liposomes and bromthymol blue (BTB)-encapsulated liposomes by adsorption-coating techniques. Turbidity changes and BTB-release characteristics in pH 5.6 buffer solutions with or without bile salts, sodium cholate and sodium glycocholate, were observed to compare the differences between uncoated liposomes and polysaccharide-coated liposomes. Initial turbidities of both uncoated and polysaccharide-coated liposomes in buffer solution were kept constant within 3% range during 4 hours of experiments. But they were decreased in a different manner in bile salts-containing buffer solutions, showing 10% or less decrease for polysaccharide-coated liposomes and 25% or more decrease for uncoated liposomes. BTB release from uncoated liposomes has been greatly increased upto 90% after 4 hours in bile salts-containing buffer solution, which is a clue for breakdown of liposomal vesicles. However, polysaccharide-coated liposomes showed the controlled-release pattern which is proportional to square-root of time, followed by around 50% release for the same time period. Consequently, it is possible to conclude that these polysaccharide-coated liposomes might be an available system for oral delivery of a drug which is unstable in gut environment.