Production of pectin lyase from Geobacillus pallidus p26, purification, characterization and fruit juice application

A bacterial strain was isolated from Pasinler hot spring, Erzurum, Turkey. The purified thermophilic isolate was identified as Geobacillus pallidus P26 and used to produce extracellular pectin lyase (EC 4.2.2.10). Pectin lyase enzyme was purified 34 fold by using DEAE-cellulose anion exchange column chromatography and characterized. Molecular weight of the enzyme was determined as 56 kDa by using Sephadex G-100 gel filtration chromatography. Purification of enzyme was verified by SDS-PAGE. The pH- and temperature optima of enzyme were determined (pH 9.0 and 60°C, respectively). Pectin lyase was mostly stable at 50 oC for 24 hours. Its’ activity decreased to 50 % for 24 h at 60°C. KM and Vmax were calculated as 24.8 mg/mL and 2.28 μmol/L min, respectively. Purified pectin lyase was inhibited by Fe3+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Ca2+, Co2+ and Hg2+ but not by Mg2+. The purified pectin lyase enzyme was used for getting fruits juices. It was found that yields of fruits juices increased when they were compared with control.

Reclassification of Geobacillus pallidus (Scholz et al. 1988) Banat et al. 2004 as Aeribacillus pallidus gen. nov., comb. nov.

Although Anoxybacillus and Geobacillus, two genera of thermophilic bacteria close to the genus Bacillus, have only been described recently, the number of species in these genera has increased rapidly. Four thermophilic, lipolytic strains (DR01, DR02, DR03 and DR04) isolated from a hot spring in Veracruz (Mexico), which could not be identified phenotypically, were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Three strains were identified as belonging to the genus Anoxybacillus, but strain DR03 was identified as Geobacillus pallidus. This result led us to perform a phylogenetic analysis of the genera Anoxybacillus and Geobacillus based on 16S rRNA gene sequences from all the type strains of these genera. Phylogenetic trees showed three major clusters, Anoxybacillus–Geobacillus tepidamans, Geobacillus sensu stricto and Geobacillus pallidus, while the 16S rRNA gene sequences of G. pallidus (DR03 and the type strain) showed low similarity to sequences of Anoxybacillus (92.5–95.1 %) and Geobacillus (92.8–94.5 %) species, as well as to Bacillus subtilis (92.2–92.4 %). In addition, G. pallidus could be differentiated from Anoxybacillus and Geobacillus on the basis of DNA G+C content and fatty acid and polar lipid profiles. From these results, it is proposed that Geobacillus pallidus should be classified in a novel genus, for which we propose the name Aeribacillus, as Aeribacillus pallidus gen. nov., comb. nov. The type strain of Aeribacillus pallidus is H12T (=ATCC 51176T =DSM 3670T =LMG 19006T).