Ads. Pinto et al., PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN EXTRACELLULAR CHITINASE FROM THE ENTOMOPATHOGEN METARHIZIUM-ANISOPLIAE, Canadian journal of microbiology, 43(4), 1997, pp. 322-327
Chitinases are produced by Metarhizium anisopliae when it is grown in
the presence of chitin. A chitinase from the culture filtrate of Metar
hizium anisopliae was successively purified by precipitation with ammo
nium sulphate, followed by anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepha
cel. The purified enzyme, which has a molecular mass of approximately
30 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate - polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
, catalyses the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl beta-N-diacetylchitobiose
with an apparent K-m of 0.537 mmol and V-max of 4.86 nmol.mL(-1).min(-
1). The optimum pH and temperature were 4.5-5.0 and 40-45 degrees C, r
espectively.