• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.731-737
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• 2003

Mucinase complex from V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802 was purified 6-fold with 0.4% yield by two sequential steps of Q-Sepharose and Superdex 200HR column chromatographies. Partially purified mucinase complex showed at least 8 times higher mucin-degrading activity than the culture filtrates. The mucinase complex also showed gelatin-and-casein-hydrolyzing activities, which demonstrates that the protein is a complex compound containing several proteases. The optimum pH and temperature of partially purified mucinase complex for mucin degradation was 8.0 and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively. The partially purified mucinase complex showed high cytotoxic activity on vero cells when examined by MTT assay and microscopic observations. Cytotoxicity was significantly increased in proportion to the concentration of the mucinase complex. Mouse experiments revealed that the jejunum, ileum. and large intestinal tissues were damaged by the injection of the mucinase complex. In particular, the reduction of the goblet cells in the large intestine was remarkable. Collectively, these data suggest that the mucinase complex partially purified from V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802 contributes to the adhesion and invasion of V. parahaemolyticus into the host intestinal tract.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.345-348
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• 2002

A rapid spectrophotometric method for detecting the mucinase complex was developed. Bovine submaxillary mucin is cleaved by commercial mucinase between the oligosaccharide chain and the side chain of peptide linkage, thereby liberating the N-acetyl neuraminic acid (NANA). The release of NANA resulted in an increase of absorbance at 280 nm. The susceptibility to NANA by the new method was found to be at least 10-fold more sensitive than the thiobarbituric acid method. Moreover, the quantification of NANA released from mucin by commercial neuraminidase and partially purified Vibrio parahaemolyticus mucinase showed a good linear correlation in proportion to the concentration of the enzyme used. These results demonstrate that the rapid identification of mucin degradation can be determined by a spectrophotometric assay, thereby providing a new, fast, and sensitive method for assaying the bacterial mucinase complex.