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Aging of Penicillium chrysogenum cultures under carbon starvation: II: protease and N ‐acetyl‐b‐D‐hexosaminidase production
Author(s) -
Pusztahelyi Tünde,
Pócsi István,
Szentirmai Attila
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
biotechnology and applied biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1470-8744
pISSN - 0885-4513
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-8744.1997.tb00418.x
Subject(s) - penicillium chrysogenum , extracellular , biochemistry , proteases , protease , autolysis (biology) , biology , enzyme
In aging carbon‐depleted cultures of Penicillium chrysogenum the fragmentation and autolysis of old mycelia were coupled with the production of high levels of extracellular protease and N ‐acetyl‐b‐D‐hexosaminidase; this could be stopped by the addition of an extra dose of glucose at any incubation time tested, but was not affected by endogenous NH 3 . After the addition of glucose, intracellular enzyme accumulation was observed only for the N ‐acetyl‐b‐D‐hexosaminidase, and the concomitant decrease in both the extracellular protease and N ‐acetyl‐b‐D‐hexosaminidase activities was not caused by the action of extracellular proteases. The physiological function of the N ‐acetyl‐b‐D‐hexosaminidase remains to be elucidated because the P. chrysogenum culture studied did not utilize N ‐acetyl‐D‐glucosamine as a carbon source. However, the proteases (mainly serine and, to a much smaller extent, metalloproteases) might provide surviving hyphal fragments with sufficient amino acids to maintain the cryptic growth observed in aging carbon‐depleted cultures.