Abstract
Chitin oligosaccharides (COs) hold high promise as organic fertilizers in the ongoing agro-ecological transition. Short- and long-chain COs can contribute to the establishment of symbiotic associations between plants and microorganisms, facilitating the uptake of soil nutrients by host plants. Long-chain COs trigger plant innate immunity. A fine investigation of these different signaling pathways requires improving the access to high-purity COs. Here, we used the response surface methodology to optimize the production of COs by enzymatic hydrolysis of water-soluble chitin (WSC) with hen egg-white lysozyme. The influence of WSC concentration, its acetylation degree, and the reaction time course were modelled using a Box–Behnken design. Under optimized conditions, water-soluble COs up to the nonasaccharide were formed in 51% yield and purified to homogeneity. This straightforward approach opens new avenues to determine the complex roles of COs in plants.
Highlights
Agriculture in the 21st century faces multiple challenges
Too many parameters influence hen egg-white lysozyme [28] (HEWL) activity; we only considered water-soluble chitin (WSC) concentration, degree of acetylation, and the reaction time course for the design of experiments
HEWL activity is abundantly documented in the literature; optimal buffer and pH differ somewhat according to the substrate and the analytical methods used
Summary
Agriculture in the 21st century faces multiple challenges. The production levels have to be increased to satisfy the food needs of a growing world population as well as to meet the feedstock requirements for a booming green economy (biofuel, biomaterials). Every year about 100 billion tons [2,3] are produced by crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and fungi chitin is discarded in massive amounts (6–8 million tons/year) as waste from the seafood industry [4,5]
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