Properties of thermostable hemicellulolytic enzymes from Thermomonospora strain 29 grown in solid state fermentation on coffee processing solid waste.

During decaffeination of Coffee Processing Plant Solid Wastes (CPSW) by actinomycetes, Thermomonospora, Strain 29 exhibited high titers of cellulase and xylanase. This organism, originally isolated on soybean seed coat was grown in solid state fermentation on CPSW supplemented with mineral salts. Enzymes recovered were arabinosidase, xylanase, and beta-D-xylosidase. Higher activity of the former two enzymes was in the extracellular broth, whereas the beta-D-xylosidase activity was highest in the cell fraction. The enzymes were characterized after precipitation with (NH(4))(2)SO(4), dialysis, and gel filtration. Production of all three enzymes was inhibited by monomeric sugars and sugar alcohols but not by arabinoxylan, xylans, or xylan containing water insoluble carbohydrates. The optimum pH for the activity was 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5 for beta-xylosidase, xylanase and arabinosidase (alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase, alpha-arabinosidase, alpha-L-arabinosidase) respectively. These enzymes were stable in the pH range of 6.5 to 8.0. All three enzymes were thermostable up to 80 degrees C. At 55 degrees C, arabinosidase had the longest half life of 120 h. However, at 40 degrees C, xylanase had the longest half life (504 h). At either temperature, beta-D-xylosidase had the shortest half life. The molecular weights (kDa), and Kms (mM) were estimated to be 95, 0.27; 45, 12.4; and 106, 0.67 for arbinosidase, xylanase, and beta-xylosidase respectively. Step wise addition of the three enzymes showed higher saccharification of lignocellulosics.