Purification and Charaterization of Antifungal Chitinase from Indigenous Antagonistic Microorganism Serratia sp. 3095

An extracellular chitinase of the selected strong antifungal microorganism, Serratia sp. 3095, was purified by salting out, affinity adsorption, Sepadex G-100 gel fitration, Sepadex G-75 gel fitration and DEAE Sepadex A-50 chromatography. The molecular weight of the purified chitinase was estimated to be 62,000 dalton by SDS-PAGE. Optimal pH and temperature of the chitinase were pH 7.5 and 45, respectively. The enzyme retained more than 80% of the activity between pH 5.5 and pH 10.5, and below $50^{\circ}C$ but was unstable above $60^{\circ}C$, below pH 5.0. The activity of the chitinase was inhibited about 60% by $Sn^{2+}$, 40% by $Hg^{2+}$ and $Ag^+$, 70% by AHA, 40% by iodoacetate, 35% by thiourea and p-CMB, but stabilized by SDS. $K_m$ value of the purified chitinase was 3.68 mg/ml for colloidal chitin. The chitinase from Serratia sp. 3095 showed antifungal activity to Fusariurm solani.