Production, Partial Purification and Proteolysis of Carboxymethylcellulases from Arachniotus citrinus

Carboxymethylcellulases (CMCases) of Arachniotus citrinus were produced under solid state fermentation on different carbon sources including wheat bran, corn cob, alkali treated corn cob and mixture of wheat bran and alkali treated corn cob at 30C for 15 days. In this case, mixture of wheat bran and corn cob was observed to be the best carbon source as maximum specific activity (4.2 U mg proteins) for crude CMCases was obtained on it. CMCases were partially purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation. The onset of CMCases precipitation occurred at 35% and completed at 75% saturation of ammonium sulphate at 0C. The purification after ammonium sulphate precipitation was 1.72-fold while 86% CMCases were recovered. After dialysis, specific activity of CMCases was 7.29 U mg. CMCases were found resistant against chymotrypsin and subtilisin as residual activity of CMCases against these proteases was 85 and 70% after 70 min, respectively.