Methods for obtaining active mutanase preparations from Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus.

The strain Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus MP-1 was used to obtain mutan-hydrolyzing enzymes. Different methods of precipitation and concentration of the post culture liquid were tested. All these methods produced satisfactory results in regard to the overall activity of mutanase and yielded active preparations of the enzyme. The best precipitation was obtained with propanol -98% of the initial enzyme activity was preserved with a purification of 2-fold. Salting out with ammonium sulfate at 50% saturation gave mutanase recovery of 77% and a purification of around 2-fold. Ultrafiltration yielded an about 10-fold concentrated preparation of the enzyme with a yield of 98%. Lyophilization and concentration of the culture broth (in the range from 5 to 20 times) in a vacuum evaporator yielded active crude preparations with mutanase recovery of 97%.