A cold-active acidophilic endoglucanase of Paenibacillus sp. Y2 isolated from soil in an alpine region

A cellulolytic strain Y2 was isolated from soil obtained in the Canadian Alpine region. The isolate was identified as Paenibacillus sp. Y2 by 16S rRNA sequencing. When grown in LB medium supplemented with carboxymethyl-cellulose (CMC), CMCase production increased to 122.0% of that observed in LB without CMC. Culture supernatant was concentrated by ultrafiltration and 80% ammonium sulfate precipitates were separated by Hi-Trap Q and CHT-II chromatography. The purified enzyme (EG-PY2) showed a homogeneous single band and the molecular mass was estimated to be 38 kDa by SDS-PAGE. Optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme were 4.5 and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. The half-life of enzyme activity at 50 was 140.7 min, but the enzyme was drastically inactivated within 5 min at $55^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was highly activated to 135.7 and 126.7% by 5.0 mM of $Cu^{2+}$ or $Mg^{2+}$ ions, respectively, and moderately activated by $Ba^{2+}$ and $Ca^{2+}$ ions, whereas it was inhibited to 76.8% by $Fe^{2+}$, and to ${\leq}50%$ by $Mn^{2+}$, $Co^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, and EDTA. The enzyme was activated to 211.5% in the presence of 0.5 M of NaCl and greatly tolerant to 3.15M of NaCl. The enzyme showed 2.98 times higher ${\beta}$-glucanase activity than CMCase activity. Based on these results, it can be concluded that EG-PY2 is an acidophilic, cold-active, and halotolerant endoglucanase. The authors suggest it is considered to be useful for various industrial applications, such as, fruit juice clarification, acidic deinking processes, high-salt food processing, textile and pulp industries, and for biofuel production from seaweeds.