title: Purification and preliminary characterization of a xylanase from Thermomyces lanuginosus strain SS-8.
abstract: Thermomyces lanuginosus SS-8 was isolated from soil samples that had been collected from near self-heating plant material and its extracellular cellulase-free xylanase purified approximately 160-fold using ion exchange chromatography and continuous elution electrophoresis. This xylanase was thermoactive (optimum temperature 60 °C) at pH 6.0 and had a molecular weight of 23.79 kDa as indicated by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. The xylanase rapidly hydrolyzed xylan directly to xylose without the production of intermediary xylo-oligosaccharides within 15 min of incubation under optimum conditions. This trait of rapidly degrading xylan to xylose as a sole end-product could have biotechnological potential in degradation of agro-wastes for bioethanol manufacturing industry.
authors.affiliation: Enzyme Technology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Birla Institute of Technology (Deemed University), Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand India.
authors.forename: Smriti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.forename: Pratyoosh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.forename: Kunal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay