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Title: You are working in a research lab investigating lignin degradation by the bacterium Eatusdetree ... Post by: star on Sep 23, 2010 You are working in a research lab investigating lignin degradation by the bacterium Eatusdetree totalii which was isolated from a rotting piece of birch your supervisor found while strolling in the forest. The genomic sequence of this bacterium has not yet been determined. You found that the addition of a small quantity of hydrogen peroxide induces production of an enzyme which enables the organism to degrade lignin. Zymography (an electrophoretic technique, based on SDS-PAGE) has revealed that a single form of the enzyme is present in cultures grown under solid state fermentation conditions. You go on to purify the enzyme and find that the purified enzyme catalyzes C-C bond cleavage in the side chains of lignin but is unable to do so without added H2O2. When the enzyme preparation is added to pure cellulose under similar reaction conditions, hydrogen peroxide is consumed but to a lesser degree than when lignin is used as substrate. Interestingly, you find that bubbling pure oxygen into the cultures does not result in any enzyme activity against either lignin or cellulose.
Title: You are working in a research lab investigating lignin degradation by the bacterium Eatusdetree ... Post by: bio_man on Sep 23, 2010 Content hidden
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