Production, purification, and biochemical characterization of two β-glucosidases from Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

The filamentous fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum prudces ß-glucosidases in liquid culture with a variety of carbon sources, including cellulose (filter paper), xylan, barley straw, oat meal, and xylose. Analysis by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) followed by an activity staining with the specific chromogenic substrate, 5-bromo 4-chloro 3-indolyl ß-1,4 glucoside (X-glu) showed that two extracellular β-glucosidases, designated as ß-glul1 and -glu2, were in the filter paper culture filtrate. Only one enzyme designated as ß-glus was revealed by the same method in the xylose culture filtrate. ß-glu1 and ß-glu2 were purified to homogeneity. The purification procedure consist of a common step of anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose CL6B, both high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) anion-exchange and gel filtration columns for ß-glu1 and only HPLC gel filtration for ß-glu2. ß-glu1 has a molecular mass of 196 kDa and 96.5 kDa, as estimated by gel filtration and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-PAGE, respectively, suggesting that the native enzyme may consist of two identical subunits. The same analysis showed that ß-glu2 is a monomeric protein with an apparent molecular mass of about 76.5 kDa. ß-glu1 and ß-glu2 hydrolyses PNPG1c and cellobiose, with apparent K _m values respectively for PNPGlc and cellobiose of 0.1 and 1.9 mM for ß-glu1 and 2.8 and 8 mM for ß-glu2. Both enzymes exhibit the same temperature and pH optima for PNPG1c hydrolysis (60°C and pH 5.0). ß-glu1 was stable over a pH range of 3–8 and kept 50% of its activity after 30 min of heating at 60°C without substrate. It was further characterized by studying the effect of some cations and various reagents on its activity.