Abstract
A bacterial strain No. 40, which produced extracellular endoglucanase, was isolated from the rumen of Korean native goals and identified to be a genus of Actinomyces sp. The optimum conditions for endoglucanase production in PY-CMC medium were initial pH of 7.0 and 4 days of cultivation at $39^{\circ}C$. When localization of endoglucanase activity of Actinomyces sp. was determined, 68% of the enzyme activity was found in the extracellular fraction, 11% of the activity was detected in the periplasmic space and the remaining activity was in the intracellular and cell-bound fractions. The maximal endoglucanase activity was observed at pH 5.0 and it was most s table at pH 5.0. The optimum temperature of this enzyme activity was $55^{\circ}C$, but enzyme activity was gradually lost at temperature above $60^{\circ}C$. The crude enzyme was activated by addition of 10 mM cysteine and 10 mM DTT. But it was inhibited by addition of 10 mM $Cu^{{+}{+}}$ and $Fe^{{+}{+}}$. This crude enzyme could digest carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), and degrade xylan, avicel, pNPG, and pNPC to a less extent.