Abstract
Thousand actinomycetes and 50 soil samples were used for the isolation of microorganisms producing yeast cell wall lytic enzymes. Among 493 strains producing large clear zones on autolysed washed yeast (AWY), 117 strains were selected on living yeast cell agar plates. With the method of lytic activity, one strain (St-1702) was selected, which was temporarily identified as Streptomyces eurythermus. The optimal condition for enzyme production of this strain was partially determined as follows: incubation of the strain for 3 days at 30$\circ$C in the medium containing 2% freeze dried yeast cell, 1% glucose, 1% K$_{2}$HPO$_{4}$, 0.01% MgSO$_{4}$'7H$_{2}$O, 0.5% peptone, and 0.2% (NH$_{4}$)$_{2}$CO$_{3}$ with pH 7.0. The protoplast formation of yeast by using the enzyme produced by this strain was compared with commercial enzymes.