Uses
Agriculture fields: control pathogens.
Human health care: Asthma.
Pharma: preparation of chitooligosaccharides and N-acetyl D glucosamine,
Preparation of single-cell protein
Isolation of protoplasts from fungi and yeast
Control of pathogenic fungi
Treatment of chitinous waste, mosquito control and morphogenesis
General Description
Chitinase is an extracellular complex of enzymes that degrade chitin. Chitin is a cell wall component of Fungi and exoskeketal essentials of different organisms which reshape their own chitin or digest/dissolve the chitin of other organisms (insects, fungi, yeast, and algae, and in the internal structures of other vertebrates) . Chitinases have been detected in many microorganisms and in plants. In fungi, chitinases assist in morphogenesis, to break down the inherent chitin content of fungal cell walls. Plant chitinases help in resistance to fungal attack and counteracting fungal growth, by targeting those same fungal cell walls. In bacteria, bacterial chitinases assist in utilizing chitin as a carbon source and as an energy source.
Streptomyces griseus produces multiple chitinases of different molecular masses after growth induction with chitin as the carbon source.
The enzymatic hydrolysis of chitin to N-acetyl-D-glucosamine involves two consecutive enzyme reactions:
- The first reaction, chitodextrinase-chitinase, is a poly(β-(1→4)-[2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucoside])- glycanohydrolase, which removes chitobiose units from chitin.
- The second activity is N-acetyl-glucosaminidasechitobiase, which cleaves the disaccharide to its monomer subunits, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine.
Biochem/physiol Actions
Chitinase serves as a biopesticide against several fungi and insects. This hydrolytic enzyme is capable of cleaving the glycosidic bonds in chitin.
