• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.390-394
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• 1992

Some enzymatic characteristics of the aflatoxin degrading factor produced extraceIlularly by Aspergillus awamori var. fumeus were investigated. When aflatoxin B1 was incubated with the culture filtrate of A. awamori var. fumeus. 60% of it was degraded within an hour. The degradation rate decreased with time and there was virtually no degradation after one hour. The apparent Michaelis constant ($K_m$) determined by Lineweaver-Burk plot was $10.2{\mu}M$. The optimum degradation was observed at $30^{\circ}C$ and pH 5. For the degradation, molecular oxygen seemed to be required. The degradation was enhanced by the $Co^{2+}$. but was inhibited by many other ions like $Fe^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$. $Mg^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$,$Cu^{2+}$, and $Ba^{2+}$, The presence of either KeN or metyrapone inhibited the reaction while that of $NaI0_4$ cytochrome C or NADPH showed no effect.