Investigation of production of pectinase by Pseudomonas fluorescens (NRRL B-2641)

In this study, production of pectin lyase, exo-pectinase and endo-pectinase was per-formed by Pseudomonas fluorescens in a batch system and the effects of initial pH, initial pectin concentration, different nitrogen sources, and metal salts on enzyme production were investigated. Then, the enzyme production was achieved with solid state fermentation using different agricultural wastes and the agricultural wastes that can be used in the production of pectinase group enzymes were determined. At the first stage of the research, submerged culture fermentation experiments were studied and the effect of initial pH on the production of pectin lyase, exo-pectinase and endo-pectinase was investigated, maximum enzymes production were obtained at pH : 8. In order to investigate the effect of initial pectin concentration on enzyme production, pec-tin concentration was varied in the range of % 0.5-1.5 (w/v). 1.0 % (w/v) pectin was de-termined as optimum pectin concentration. Then the effects of different nitrogen sources were investigated, ammonium sulfate, yeast extract and peptone were used as nitrogen sources. The highest activity was observed at 0.14 % (w/v) ammonium sulfate. At the last part of the submerged culture fermentation experiments, the effects of metal salts were examined and ZnSO4.7H2O, MnSO4.H2O, FeSO4.7H2O, CaCI2.2H2O, NaCl, CuSO4.5H2O at the concentration of 0.02 % (w/v) were used for this purpose. The maximum activity values were obtained in a medium containing 0.02 % (w/v) ZnSO4.7H2O. At the second stage of the research, the effects temperature and pH on pectin lyase, exo-pectinase and endo-pectinase enzymes activities were tested. For this purpose pH was variated in the range of 6-11, where as temperature was variated from 30oC to 70 oC. The optimum pH were found as 8, 10 and 9; optimum temperatures were found as 50, 40 and 40 oC for pectin lyase, exo and endo pectinase activities, respectively. At the last stage of the research, solid state fermentation studies were performed. Agri-cultural wastes such as wheat bran, sugar beet pulp, sunflower tray, orange peel, banana peel and apple pomace were used and the maximum pectin lyase, exo-pectinase and endo-pectinase activities were determined in the medium containing sugar beet pulp, apple po-mace and orange peel, respectively.