Isolation and characterization of extracellular lipase preparations from wild-type (V-10) and mutant (M-1)Serratia marcescens strains

—The cultivation conditions of wild-type strain V-10 and mutant strain M-l (overproducer of endonuclease and chitinase) ofSerratia marcescens optimal for extracellular lipase biosynthesis were determined. The strain V-10 displayed the maximum lipase yield (840 AU/ml) after 10–12 h of cultivation; the strain M-l (330 AU/ml), after 25–30 h. The data showed that extracellular lipases from V-10 and M-1 can be precipitated in a weakly acidic medium (pH 5.0 and 4.5, respectively). This property was used to obtain partially purified lipase preparations. The effect of the ionic composition of the reaction mixture on the activities of these enzymatic preparations was studied. Both preparations displayed the highest activities in weakly alkaline media (pH 8.0); however, the wild-type strain lipase displayed higher thermal stability and stability at alkaline pH compared with M-1 lipase. Both lipases were activated by various anionic and nonionic surfactants and were inactive in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide.