A novel Thermothelomyces heterothallicus PA2S4T fungus isolated from the soil induces chitinase production using orange peel flour

Abstract

Chitinases are enzymes capable of hydrolysing the β-1,4 bonds of chitin releasing chitooligosaccharides and N-acetylglucosamine and are widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries. Microorganisms are potential producers of this enzyme; however, there are no reports in the literature on the production of chitinase by fungi of the genus Thermothelomyces. Thus, this work aimed to investigate the production of extracellular chitinase using alternative carbon sources by the fungus isolated from soil, Thermothelomyces heterothallicus PA2S4T. The fungus was cultivated in a liquid medium supplemented with carbon sources and incubated at 40°C under stationary conditions for seven days. Orange peel flour was the best inducer for extracellular chitinase, with 82.3 U/mL of enzymatic activity. The highest production of chitinase was obtained on the tenth day, and the optimum pH and temperature for enzyme activity were 4.5 and 50ºC, respectively. Therefore, the fungus T. heterothallicus PA2S4T proved to be promising in the production of extracellular chitinase, which presents pH and temperature characteristics favourable to biotechnological application.

Biocontrol Potential of Serratia Marcescens (B8) and Bacillus sp. (B13) Isolated from Urban Mangroves in Raposa, Brazil

“…The same bacterial species isolated in this study were used in that study: S. marcescens, P. aeruginosa, and B. cereus. Here, S. marcescens stands out, corroborating the work of Pommer et al [41], a study on the enzymatic hydrolysis of chitin, in which it was among the most promising bacteria in producing chitinase. Those authors found that a combination of enzymes from a filamentous fungus and S. marcescens could completely degrade high concentrations of chitin.…”

“…The cells were observed under an optical microscope (40×), and 4000 cells per treatment were analyzed to evaluate all mitotic stages (interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase). The mitotic index (MI) was calculated using the following equation [41]:…”

Purification, Characterization and Antifungal Activity of the Aspergillus niveus Chitinase Produced Using Shrimp Shells

“…The best chitinolytic activity for the enzymes produced by A. terreus, Trichoderma viride AUMC 13021 and Thermothelomyces heterothalicus PA2S4T was found at pH 5.6, 6.5 and 4.5, respectively [24,25,36]. Considering pH stability, the A. niveus chitinase remained more stable than the other fungal chitinases such as that produced by the A. terreus enzyme, which kept 80% of its initial activity when maintained at a pH range from 5.0 to 8.0 for 1 h [24].…”

Use of Flipped Classroom for Food Microbiology Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Although the production of chitinases by yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ABDEL-KAREEM; RASMEY; ZOHRI, 2019) and Candida albicans (SELVAGGINI et al, 2004) has already been reported, filamentous fungi are those most used in the production of these enzymes; some of the genera used are Trichoderma (BALDONI et al, 2020;LOC et al, 2020), Penicillium (XIE et al, 2021), Aspergillus (ABDEL WAHAB et al, 2022), Metarhizium (DOS REIS et al, 2018), Beauveria (SCHMALTZ et al, 2021 and Thermothelomyces (POMMER et al, 2021).…”

“…Biotechnology industries already use a wide variety of enzymes; fungi, especially filamentous fungi, play a prominent role in the production of these molecules (POMMER et al, 2021).…”