Cellulolytic enzyme system of Trichoderma koningii. Separation of components attacking native cotton

Abstract

1. Cell-free culture filtrates from Trichoderma koningii were concentrated by precipitation with ammonium sulphate between the limits of 20% and 80% saturation. 2. Removal of a low-molecular-weight carboxymethylcellulase (CM-cellulase) component by chromatography on Sephadex G-75 had no effect on the ability of the enzyme complex to solubilize cotton. 3. Further chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex separated a component (C₁) from the C_x (CM-cellulase) and β-glucosidase activities. Separately these components had little ability to produce soluble sugars from cotton, but when recombined in their original proportions this capacity was almost completely recovered. 4. The C_x component was further fractionated on SE-Sephadex into a fraction containing only CM-cellulase and a fraction showing CM-cellulase and β-glucosidase activities: the latter two components could be separated by heat treatment. 5. The C₁ component had no swelling factor (S-factor) activity (Marsh, Merola & Simpson, 1953; Reese & Gilligan, 1954) on its own, but it had a synergistic effect on the S-factor activity associated with the CM-cellulase and β-glucosidase components.