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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Feb 1997, 665-669, Vol 63, No. 2
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology

Kinetics of Cellulose Digestion by Fibrobacter succinogenes S85

G Maglione, JB Russell and DB Wilson
Section of Microbiology and Section of Biochemistry, Cornell University, and Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York 14853

Growing cultures of Fibrobacter succinogenes S85 digested cellulose at a rapid rate, but nongrowing cells and cell extracts did not have detectable crystalline cellulase activity. Cells that had been growing exponentially on cellobiose initiated cellulose digestion and succinate production immediately, and cellulose-dependent succinate production could be used as an index of enzyme activity against crystalline cellulose. Cells incubated with cellulose never produced detectable cellobiose, and cells that were preincubated for a short time with thiocellobiose lost their ability to digest cellulose (competitive inhibition [K(infi)] of only 0.2 mg/ml or 0.56 mM). Based on these results, the crystalline cellulases of F. succinogenes were very sensitive to feedback inhibition. Different cellulose sources bound different amounts of Congo red, and the binding capacity was HCl-regenerated cellulose > ball-milled cellulose > Sigmacel > Avicel > filter paper. Congo red binding capacity was highly correlated with the maximum rates of metabolism of cellulose digestion and inversely related to K(infm). Congo red (250 (mu)g/ml) did not inhibit the growth of F. succinogenes S85 on cellobiose, but this concentration of Congo red inhibited the rate of ball-milled cellulose digestion. A Lineweaver-Burk plot of ball-milled cellulose digestion rate versus the amount of cellulose indicated that Congo red was a competitive inhibitor of cellulose digestion (K(infi) was 250 (mu)g/ml).

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