Assessing the diversity of marine bacterial beta-glucosidases by capillaryelectrophoresis zymography

We propose a new method for the fast separation and detection of (beta -glu cosidases in environmental samples. With this approach, beta -glucosidases extracted from bacteria are evidenced by substrate-incorporated capillary e lectrophoresis (CE zymography) and their kinetic parameters can be determin ed by repeated injections using different substrate concentrations. Prelimi nary results obtained with natural bacterial communities from the coastal N orth Sea suggest that the diversity of beta -glucosidases in the marine env ironment might be much higher than previously observed.