ISSN:
0025-116X
Keywords:
Chemistry
;
Polymer and Materials Science
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Physics
Notes:
A study of the viscosity-average degree of polymerization DPη as a function of time under the action of a cellulase multienzyme complex was carried out using Trichoderma Reesei QM9414 for the production of the enzyme complex and cotton cellulose with a DPη ≈ 6 800 as substrate. Simultaneously the fractions of material dissolved by the enzyme action during various times of hydrolysis were determined. The study revealed that the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose using the multienzyme complex comprises several consecutive stages, one stage of appreciably decreasing DP alternating with one in which the DP is nearly constant. The portion of cellulose transformed (through its degradation) to soluble products, however, increases continuously with time also in the stages of constant DP. These results permit the conclusion that there exists a synergism of endo- and exocellulases, and that within this synergism the hydrolytical cleavage of internal glucosidic linkages catalysed by the endoenzyme is a necessary first step. The statistical degradation of cellulose molecules generates new chain ends which are then susceptible to the action of exocellulases, provoking and end-wise depolymerization process.
Additional Material:
5 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/macp.1990.021910717
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