Hydrolysis of isolated coffee mannan and coffee extract by mannanases of Sclerotium rolfsii.

Different mannanase preparations obtained from the filamentous fungus Sclerotium rolfsii were used for the hydrolysis of coffee mannan, thus reducing significantly the viscosity of coffee extracts. Mannan is the main polysaccharide component of these extracts and is responsible for their high viscosity, which negatively affects the technological processing of instant coffee. Coffee mannan was isolated from green defatted Arabica beans by delignification, acid wash and subsequent alkali extraction with a yield of 12.8%. Additionally, coffee extract polysaccharides were separated by alcohol precipitation and were found to form nearly half of the coffee extract dry weight. These isolated mannans as well as the mannan in the coffee extract were efficiently hydrolysed by the S. rolfsii mannanase, which resulted in significant viscosity reductions. Concurrently, the reducing sugar content increased continuously due to the release of various mannooligosaccharides including mannotetraose, mannotriose, and mannobiose. Both a partially purified, immobilised and a soluble, crude mannanase preparation were successfully employed for the degradation of coffee mannan.

Production of hemicellulose- and cellulose-degrading enzymes by various strains of Sclerotium rolfsii.

A number of wild-type isolates of Sclerotium rolfsii were screened for their capacity to produce lignocellulolytic enzymes when grown on a cellulose-based medium.S. rolfsii proved to be an efficient producer of hemicellulolytic enzymes under the conditions selected for this screening, although there was a great variability in enzyme activities formed by the different isolates. In addition to xylanase and mannanase, which were produced in remarkably high levels, a number of accessory enzymes, which are important for the complete degradation of substituted hemicelluloses and include a-arabinosidase, acetyl esterase, and a-galactosidase, are formed by S. rolfsii. Efficient production of xylanase and mannanase was achieved when cellulose-based media were used for growth. Under these conditions, enhanced levels of endoglucanase were formed as well. Formation of xylanase and mannanase could be more specifically induced when using xylan or mannan as growth substrates, although the enzyme activities thus obtained were significantly lower compared to cultivations on cellulose as main inducing substrate.

Efficient production of mannan-degrading enzymes by the basidiomycete Sclerotium rolfsii.

Sclerotium rolfsii CBS 191.62 was cultivated on a number of carbon (C) sources, including mono- and disaccharides, as well as on polysaccharides, to study the formation of different mannan-degrading enzyme activities. Highest levels of mannanase activity were obtained when alpha-cellulose-based media were used for growth, but formation of mannanase could not be enhanced by employing galactomannan as the only carbon source. Although both xylanase and cellulase formation was almost completely repressed when S. rolfsii was grown on more readily metabolizable carbohydrates, including glucose or mannose, considerable amounts of mannanase activity were secreted under these growth conditions. Enhanced mannanase production only commenced when glucose was depleted in the medium. The maximal mannanase activity of 240 IU/mL obtained in a laboratory fermentation is remarkable. Mannanase activity formed under these derepressed conditions could be mainly attributed to one major, acidic mannanase isoenzyme with a pI value of 2.75.

Induction of Mannanase, Xylanase, and Endoglucanase Activities in Sclerotium rolfsii.

Induction of mannanase, xylanase, and cellulase (endoglucanase) synthesis in the plant-pathogenic basidiomycete Sclerotium rolfsii was studied by incubating noninduced, resting mycelia with a number of mono-, oligo-, and polysaccharides. The simultaneous formation of these three endoglycanases could be provoked by several polysaccharides structurally resembling the carbohydrate constituents of lignocellulose (e.g., mannan and cellulose), by various disaccharide catabolites of these lignocellulose constituents (e.g., cellobiose, mannobiose, and xylobiose), or by structurally related disaccharides (e.g., lactose, sophorose, and galactosyl-beta-1,4-mannose), as well as by l-sorbose. Synthesis of mannanase, xylanase, and endoglucanase always occurred concomitantly and could not be separated by selecting an appropriate inducer. Various structurally different inducing carbohydrates promoted the excretion of the same multiple isoforms of endoglycanases, as judged from the similar banding patterns obtained in zymogram analyses of enzyme preparations obtained in response to these different inducers and resolved by analytical isoelectric focusing. Whereas enhanced xylanase and endoglucanase formation is strictly dependent on the presence of suitable inducers, increased levels of mannanase are excreted by S. rolfsii even under noninducing, derepressed conditions, as shown in growth experiments with glucose as the substrate. Significant mannanase formation commenced only when glucose was exhausted from the medium. Under these conditions, only very low, presumably constitutive levels of xylanase and endoglucanase were formed. Although the induction of the three endoglycanases is very closely related in S. rolfsii, it was concluded that there is no common, coordinated regulatory mechanism that controls the synthesis of mannanase, xylanase, and endoglucanase.