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Updated: Aug 20, 2026
High-throughput Screening of Carbohydrate-degrading Enzymes Using Novel Insoluble Chromogenic Substrate Assay Kits
Published on: September 20, 2016
A plate assay for simultaneous screening of polysaccharide- and protein-degrading micro-organisms
1Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Kuseong-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, Korea.
Aims:
To develop a plate assay for simultaneous screening of polysaccharide-degrading and protein-degrading micro-organisms.
Methods And Results:
A plate assay, based on the visible solubilization of small substrate particles and the formation of haloes on Petri dishes, containing a mixture of diversely coloured insoluble polysaccharides and dye-labelled collagen as chromogenic substrates, was developed. This method was successfully applied for isolating the diverse polysaccharide- and/or protein-degrading bacteria from soil and sludge samples. Selected strains were identified using 16S rDNA partial sequencing; most of them belong to the genera Bacillus, Cellulomonas and Cellulosimicrobium.
Conclusions:
This novel approach provides unique and valuable information for direct primary screening when the target of selection is micro-organisms exhibiting protein-degrading activity, polysaccharide-degrading activity or a specific combination of them.
Significance And Impact Of The Study:
This plate assay is convenient and easy to perform, rapid, and more adaptable for screening of a large number of samples, compared with other existing methods in the literature.
