PRODUCTION OF CYTASES ACTIVE ON BARLEY GUM BY BACTERIA OF THE GENUS BACILLUS

Abstract

One hundred and fourteen bacterial cultures representing most of the species in the Bacillus genus were tested for the production of extracellular barley gum cytase. Assays were made on shake-flask cultures grown on a medium containing glucose and yeast extract. Although all the organisms had some enzymatic activity, certain strains of Bacillus subtilis gave the best yields of cytase. On a medium with asparagine as the sole nitrogen source even higher yields were obtained. The crude cytase preparations were stable and after freeze-drying most of the original activity remained.