Lyticase: Endoglucanase and Protease Activities That Act Together in Yeast Cell Lysis

Yeast lytic activity was purified from the culture supernatant of Oerskovia xanthineolytica grown on minimal medium with insoluble yeast glucan as the carbon source. The lytic activity was found to consist of two synergistic enzyme activities which copurified on carboxymethyl cellulose and Sephadex G-150, but were resolved on Bio-Gel P-150. The first component was a β-1,3-glucanase with a molecular weight of 55,000. The K m for yeast glucan was 0.4 mg/ml; that for laminarin was 5.9 mg/ml. Hydrolysis of β-1,3-glucans was endolytic, yielding a mixture of products ranging from glucose to oligomers of 10 or more. The size distribution of products was pH dependent, smaller oligomers predominating at the lower pH. The glucanase was unable to lyse yeast cells without 2-mercaptoethanol or the second lytic component, an alkaline protease. Neither of these agents had any effect on the glucanase activity on polysaccharide substrates. The protease had a molecular weight of 30,000 and hydrolyzed Azocoll and a variety of denatured proteins. The enzyme was unusual in that it had an affinity for Sephadex. Although the activity was insensitive to most protease inhibitors, it was affected by polysaccharides; yeast mannan was a potent inhibitor. The enzyme did not have any mannanase activity, however. Neither pronase nor trypsin could substitute for this protease in promoting yeast cell lysis. A partially purified fraction of the enzymes, easily obtained with a single purification step, had a high lytic specific activity and was superior to commercial preparations in regard to nuclease, protease, and chitinase contamination. Lyticase has been applied in spheroplast, membrane, and nucleic acid isolation, and has proved useful in yeast transformation procedures.