Production, Purification and Partial Characterization of 1,4‐β‐Glucosidase Enzymes from Sporotrichum pulverulentum

The production of 1,4‐β‐glucosidase activity by the rot fungus Sporotrichum pulverulentum has been investigated. It was found that cellobiose or cellulose is necessary to cause induction. With cellobiose as sole carbon source only cell‐wall‐bound enzymes are produced. For extracellular excretion cellulose seems to be a necessary carbon source. The purification procedures, for purification of enzyme activity in the culture solution, involve the following steps: (a) ultrafiltration, (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 precipitation and dialyses; (b) preparative slab gel isoelectric focusing I, pH range 3–10; (c) phenyl‐Sepharose chromatography; (d) preparative slab gel isoelectric focusing II, pH range 3–5. On the phenyl‐Sepharose column the β‐glucosidase activity was associated with two separable enzyme peaks, enzyme A and B. When these enzymes were subjected to further purification on preparative isoelectric focusing II, enzyme A was split into two peaks, A 1 and A 2 , and enzyme B was split into three peaks, B 1 , B 2 and B 3 . The significance of the separations is discussed. The isoelectric points of all the enzymes have been determined and found to vary between 4.52 to 5.15. The molecular weights, determined by dodecylsulphate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, vary between 165000 and 182000. The kinetic constants K m and K i have been determined for enzyme A and B as well as for the cell‐bound β‐glucosidase activity. K m for cellobiose was for both enzyme A and B higher than K m for p ‐nitrophenyl β‐ d ‐glucoside. K m / K i of the free enzymes for gluconolactone is approximately 2500 (enzyme B) to 13000 (enzyme A) with cellobiose as substrate.