Production of bacteriolytic enzymes by mycoparasitic Trichoderma strains

Eighteen mycoparasitic Trichoderma strains were tested for their ability to degrade heat-inactivated Bacillus cereus var. mycoides, B. megaterium, B. subtilis, Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens cells. The non-inductive and inductive ferment broths of five strains with good degrading abilities towards B. subtilis were investigated for specific degrading enzyme activities. In addition to trypsin- and chymotrypsin-like protease activities, -1,4-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (NAGase) was also secreted. Strain Trichoderma harzianum T19 had the most outstanding degrading abilities. The extracellular degrading enzymes of this strain were separated on a Sephadex G-150 column, and their preliminary characterization was performed. The results demonstrated that muramidase-like activities are present in the ferment broth of this T. harzianum strain.