Abstract

ASSAY OF CELLULASE ENZYMOLOGY ON CELLULOSE WAS INVESTIGATED BY TWO METHODS: (i) plate colony counting to determine microbial growth and (ii) microbial calorimetry. These methods were chosen because they accept raw samples and have the potential to be far more specific than spectrophotometric reducing sugar assays. Microbial calorimetry requires ca. 0.5 to 1 h and 10 to 100 muM concentrations of cellulolytic lower sugars (glucose and cellobiose). Growth assay (liquid culture, plating, colony counting) requires 15 to 20 h and ca. 0.5 mM sugars. Microbial calorimetry requires simply aerobic metabolism, whereas growth assay requires completion of the cell cycle. A stripping technique is described for use in conjunction with the calorimetric method to enable separate analysis of the two sugars. Mixtures of glucose and cellobiose are equilibrated with Escherichia coli and spun out to remove glucose. The supernatant is calorimetrically combusted with Klebsiella sp. to quantitate cellobiose, and the same organism combusting the nonstripped mixture gives heat proportional to the sum of the two sugars. Calorimetry of cellulolysis products from individual exo- and endocellulases, and from their reconstituted mixture, was carried out to develop a microbial calorimetric means for demonstrating enzyme synergism.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.