Degradation of methylmercaptan by crude enzyme extracts of <i>Thiobacillus thioparus</i>TK-m

Abstract

The biodegradation of methyl suphides by crude enzyme extracts of Thiobacillus thioparus TK-m was investigated in this work. The data revealed that crude protein contents of enzyme extracts from cells of Thiobacillus thioparus TK-m was influenced by the saturation levels of the EDTA and ammonium sulphate solutions. For EDTA, error levels were 3, 5, 7 and 11.0 percent at 0.005, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 mM EDTA respectively. For ammonium sulphate, there was an increase in recovery of total activity at the 40 and 50 percent saturation levels (122.6 and 101.1 percent respectively) but a decrease at the 65% level (90.4%). Activity of crude enzyme extracts ranged between 0.095 and 1.28 imolmin-1mg-1.