Abstract

PRODUCTION, PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF EXTRACELLULAR L-ASPARAGINASE FROM SALT MARSH FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES

Indira Kalyanasundaram*, Jayaprabha Nagamuthu, Balakrishnan Srinivasan, Arulmoorthy Pachayappan and Srinivasan Muthukumarasamy

ABSTRACT

L-asparaginase is a therapeutic enzyme which plays a vital role in treating different forms of cancer. The aim of this study is to optimize the production of L-asparaginase by endophytic fungi isolated from Salt marsh plant (Sueada maritime) occurring along the vellar estuary of southeast coast of India. Out of the 17 isolates, eight were showed positive L-asparaginase enzyme production. Among them, Aspergillus sp. showed maximum (35.28 U/ml) enzyme activity and Aspergillus sp. mycelial growth was positive significant correlation with enzyme production. In this present study, maximum enzyme productivity was observed on 5th day and the optimized fermentation parameters: pH 7 (32.25 U/ml), temperature 30°C (28.45 U/ml) and incubation period of 5 day (35.72 U/ml). The yield was also high in glucose (26.5 U/ml), ammonium Sulphate (24.6 U/ml) and Wheat bran (32.9 U/ml). The partially purified enzyme was subjected to protein profiling by SDS-PAGE and the molecular weight of the protein have 40 KDa.

Keywords: L-asparaginase; endophytic fungi; enzyme production; Salt marsh plant.