Simultaneous Production of Chitinolytic and Neuraminidase-like Enzymes from Pseudomonas fluorescens JK-0412

Abstract

A gram-negative chitinolytic bacteria was isolated as a new strain that can secrete high levels of dual extracellular chitinolytic and neuraminidase-like enzymes in the culture filtrate when grown on chitin used as a sole carbon source. The crude enzyme has shown multi-functinal activity with different substrate specificities toward pNP-(GlcNAc)n, n=1-2, (GlcNAc)3 producing GlcNAc from the substrates. Simultaneously, neuraminidase-like active crude enzyme in the culture filtrate was also observed with the substrate specificity toward 4-Methylumbelliferyl-N-acetyl-α-D-neuraminic acid (4-MUNA). This study first reports the bacterial strain that has potential producer of dual active enzymes with different substrate specificity yielding mainly GlcNAc and sialic acid from each substrate, as an efficient tool for the degradation of chitinous materials for industry level production of GlcNAc and sialic acid, respectively.