Purification and characterization of an extracellular chitinase from the entomopathogen <i>Metarhizium anisopliae</i>

Chitinases are produced by Metarhizium anisopliae when it is grown in the presence of chitin. A chitinase from the culture filtrate of Metarhizium anisopliae was successively purified by precipitation with ammonium sulphate, followed by anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sephacel. The purified enzyme, which has a molecular mass of approximately 30 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate – polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, catalyses the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl β-N-diacetylchitobiose with an apparent K m of 0.537 mmol and V max of 4.86 nmol∙mL −1 ∙min −1 . The optimum pH and temperature were 4.5–5.0 and 40–45 °C, respectively.Key words: chitinases, Metarhizium anisopliae, enzyme purification, enzyme characterization.