• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2008

Xylan is a major hemicellulose component of the cell walls of monocots and hardwood, representing up to 30% of the dry weight of these plants. To efficiently hydrolyze xylan, the endoxylanase gene from Bacillus sp. was expressed in B. subtilis DB431 by introducing the plasmid pJHKJ4. The total activity of the recombinant endoxylanase reached about 857 unit/ml by batch fermentation of B. subtilis DB431/pJHKJ4 in LB maltose medium. The majority (>92%) of endoxylanase was efficiently secreted into the culture medium. The recombinant endoxylanase hydrolyzed more the birchwood xylan efficiently than the other xylans. When 4 % concentration of xylan was used, the highest production of xylooligosaccharide was observed, and xylobiose and xylotriose were the major products. Optimal amount of enzyme and reaction time for producing xylooligosaccharide were found to be 10 unit and 1 hr, respectively. In addition, the temperature of $40^{\circ}C{\sim}50^{\circ}C$ gave the highest production of xylooligosaccharide. Consequently, the optimized conditions for the production of xylooligosaccharide through the hydrolysis of xylan were determined as follows: 10 unit endoxylanase, $50^{\circ}C$, 4% birchwood xylan, 1 hr reaction.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1341-1346
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• 2007

An intracellular ${\beta}-xylosidase$ from Paenibacillus sp. DG-22 was purified to homogeneity by ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction and gel-filtration chromatography. The molecular weight of the enzyme was measured to be 156,000 by gel filtration and 80,000 by SDS-PAGE, indicating that the enzyme consisted of two identical subunits. The purified enzyme exhibited maximum activity at $65^{\circ}C$ and pH 5.5. It retained 89% of its initial activity up to 60 min at $60^{\circ}C$ and had a half-life of 25 min at $65^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was highly specific for pNPX as the substrate. It showed little or no activity against other p-nitrophenyl glycosides and xylans. The $K_m\;and\;V_{max}$ for pNPX was 0.53 mM and 3.18 U/mg protein, respectively. The ${\beta}-xylosidase$ was strongly inhibited by $Ag^+,\;Fe^{2+},\;Hg^{2+}\;and\;Zn^{2+}$ and slightly activated by DTT. The hydrolysis product from xylobiose, xylotriose, and xylotetraose was xylose.