Enzyme production by the nematode-trapping fungus, Duddingtonia flagrans.

Duddingtonia flagrans degrades peptides, proteins, starch, pectin, lipase, lecithin and oils when grown on agar medium. Serine proteases with optimal activity at pH 8.5 to 10.5 were produced when it was grown in submerged culture. It also produced phospholipase C with optimal activity at pH 8.5, lipases with high activity at pH 3.5 and at 7.5 to 8.5 and pectin-degrading enzymes with pH optima of 3 and 8. The pH of the culture medium affected the types of lipases and pectin degrading enzymes produced but not the proteases or phospholipase C.