• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 1995

In order to produce fuctional chitooligosaccharides, a strain excreting mainly endo-type chitinase suitable for chitooligosaccharides production was newly screened and identified as Aspergillus fumigatus JC-19. The chitinase excretion was repressed in nutrient rich medium but stimulated by colloidal chitin indicating that the chitinase is inducible type enzyme. Maximum secretion of the enzyme was observed at pH 7.0 and 37$\circ$C . The growth and chitinase production patterns of Aspergillus fumigatus JC-19 showed that the cell growth reached maximum after 4-5 days with final chitinase concentration of 0.46 unit per ml. Excreted chitinase was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, colloidal chitin adsorption, anion exchange chromatography, and gel filtration, respectively, and measured M.W of 50 KDa. The enzyme reaction carried out both by crude and purified chitinase showed that the purified chitinase accumulated more chitooligosaccharides of 1-6 degree of polymerization than that of crude chitinase.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.432-438
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• 1996

Native crystalline chitin was hydrolyzed in an agitated bead reaction system using crude chitinase excreted from Aspergillus fumigatus JC-19. The reaction was enhanced significantly, and the concentration and yield of reducing sugar after 48 hours were measured to be 35.42 g/I (w/v) and 0.64, respectively, around 1.86 times higher than those of the conventional system that was carried out without glass beads. The effect of reaction conditions, such as the amounts of chitin, chitinase and glass beads, and the size of glass bead, were examined. Ball milled chitin was also hydrolyzed in the agitated bead reaction system, the conversion yield and reaction rate of ball milled chitin for 24 hours increased up to 0.87 and 48.02 g/I, respectively. Chitinase showed relatively high stability in the agitated bead reaction system, particularly in the presence of enzyme stabilizer, $Ca^{++}$, which played a critical role in preventing the deactivation of chitinase by the physical impact of glass beads. The variations of the structural features of chitin during the reaction were followed by SEM and X-ray diffraction, and the enhanced hydrolysis reaction was caused by both the fragmentation of chitin particles and the destruction of the crystalline structure owing to the synergic effects of the attrition of glass beads and the hydrolytic action of chitinase.