Abstract
To improve the preservation of Kimchi, we isolated Lactobacillus plantarum lytic enzyme-producing strain from soil, and the enzyme was purified and characterized. From the observation of cultural and morpho- logical characteristics, the isolated strain was identified as Metarrisium anisopliae (Metschn.) Sorok. The enzyme was purified to 75-folds with 40% yields through affinity adsorption and CM-Sephadex C-50 column chromatog- raphy. The optimum pH and temperature for lytic activity are 4.0 and 40$\circ$C, respectively, and the enzyme acitvity is stable between pH 3.0 and 9.0, and up to 50$\circ$C. The enzyme is a monomeric protein with molecular weight of 40,000 daltons by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration. The enzyme is endopeptidase which breaks the peptide linkage of Lactobacillus plantarum peptidoglycan. The lytic action spectra confirmed that Leuconostoc mesenteroides, a useful strain for the fermentation of Kimchi, is not lysed by the enzyme. The enzyme activity is inhibited by N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), which probably indicates the involvement of tryptophan residue in active site of the enzyme, and also inhibited by Ag$^{+}$. The amino acid composition analysis showed that the enzyme contains more acidic amino acids than basic ones, and composition of alanine, glycine, proline and tyrosines was very high.