Tryptone

Abstract: We have isolated 40 mutants of Escherichia coli which are nonchemotactic as judged by their failure to swarm on semisolid tryptone plates or to make bands in capillary tubes containing tryptone broth. All the mutants have normal flagella, a fact shown by their shape and reaction with antiflagella serum. All are fully motile under the microscope and all are sensitive to the phage chi. Unlike its parent, one of the mutants, studied in greater detail, failed to show chemotaxis toward oxygen, glucose, serine, threonine, or aspartic acid. The failure to exhibit chemotaxis does not result from a failure to use the chemicals. The swimming of this mutant was shown to be random. The growth rate was normal under several conditions, and the growth requirements were unchanged. Images

Abstract: Background. Microbial and fungal cellulases are known to hydrolyse cellulose, which is ingested as plant mate rial by herbivorous/omnivorous fishes. Microbial enzymes have enormous advantage of being produced in large quantities by established fermentation techniques. The present investigation aims to optimize the environmental and nutritional parameters for fermentation to enhance cellulase production by two bacterial strains isolated from fish gastrointestinal tracts. Materials and methods. Two bacterial strains, Bacillus subtilis CY5 and Bacillus circulans TP3, isolated from the gastrointestinal tracts of common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., and Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossam bicus (Peters, 1852), respectively were identified as potent cellulase producers. Both strains were cultured in tryp tone soya broth for 24 h at 32 ± 2oC, when average viable count of 9.75 · 10 7 cells · mL –1 culture broth was obtained. This was used as the inoculum for the production medium. The fermentation medium was seeded with 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0%, 4.0%, and 5.0% inoculum (tryptone soya broth) and incubated in static culture at 40oC to stan dardize the inoculum size for fermentation. The effect of different production parameters, such as fermentation condition, moisture, pH, temperature, inoculum size, and nitrogen sources on cellulase production by the isolat ed bacterial strains were studied. Results. Cellulase yield was highest (26 U in B. subtilis and 20.2 U in B. circulans ) in solid-state fermentation (SSF). Enzyme production in both the isolates increased in an optimum pH range of 7.0 to 7.5. Minimum cellulase production was observed at 45oC, while maximum production was obtained at 40oC. To standardize the fermenta tion period for cellulase production, production rate was measured at 12-h intervals up to 120 h. Enzyme produc tion increased for 96 h of fermentation in both strains, and decreased thereafter. The enzyme production increased with increased inoculum size up to 3.0 percentage points. Asparagine as the nitrogen source was most effective in B. subtilis CY5, while beef extract proved useful in optimizing enzyme production by B. circulans TP3. Conclusion. The results of this study will help to standardize the requirements for optimum production of cellu lase by cellulase-producing fish gut bacteria and might contribute towards better fish feed formulation incorpo rating plant ingredients, especially in the larval stages when the enzyme system is not efficient .

Abstract: Amylases are one of the most important enzymes in present-day biotechnology. The present study was concerned with the production and partial characterization of extracellular amylase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens P-001. The effect of various fermentation conditions on amylase production through shake-flask culture was investigated. Enzyme production was induced by a variety of starchy substrate but corn flour was found to be a suitable natural source for maximum production. Tryptone and ammonium nitrate (0.2%) as nitrogen sources gave higher yield compared to other nitrogen sources. Maximum enzyme production was obtained after 48 hrs of incubation in a fermentation medium with initial pH 9.0 at 42°C under continuous agitation at 150 rpm. The size of inoculum was also optimized which was found to be 1% (v/v). Enzyme production was 2.43 times higher after optimizing the production conditions as compared to the basal media. Studies on crude amylase revealed that optimum pH, temperature and reaction time of enzyme activity was 6.5, 60°C and 40 minutes respectively. About 73% of the activity retained after heating the crude enzyme solution at 50°C for 30 min. The enzyme was activated by Ca2+ (relative activity 146.25%). It was strongly inhibited by Mn2+, Zn2+ and Cu2+, but less affected by Mg2+ and Fe2+.