Production and Characterization of Extracellular Phospholipase D from Streptomyces sp. YU100

Using Streptomyces sp. YU100 isolated from Korean soil, the fermentative production of phospholipase D was attempted along with its purification and characterization studies. When different carbon and nitrogen sources were supplemented in the culture medium, glucose and yeast extract were found to be the best. By varying the concentration of nutrients and calcium carbonate, the optimal culture medium was determined as 2.0% glucose, 1.5% yeast extract, 0.5% tryptone, and 0.3% calcium carbonate. During cultivation, the strain secreted most of the phospholipase D in the early stage of growth within 24 h. The phospholipase D produced in the culture broth exhibited hydrolytic activity as well as transphosphatidylation activity on lecithin (phosphatidylcholine). In particular, the culture broth showed 8.7 units/ml of hydrolytic activity when cultivated at 28°C for 1.5 days. The phospholipase D was purified using 80% ammonium sulfate precipitation and DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography, which produced a major band of 57 kDa on a 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel with purity higher than 80%. The enzyme showed an optimal pH of 7 in hydrolytic reaction, and at pH 4 in a transphosphatidylation reaction. The enzyme activity increased until the reaction temperature was elevated to 60°C. The enzyme was relatively stable at high temperatures and neutral pH, but significantly unstable in the alkaline range. Among the detergents tested as emulsifiers of phospholipids, the highest enzyme activity was observed when 1.5% Triton X-100 was employed. However, no inhibitory effect by metal ions was detected. Under optimized reaction conditions, the purified enzyme not only completely decomposed PC to phosphatidic acid within 1 h, but also exhibited higher than 80% conversion rate of PC to PS by transphosphatidylation within 4 h.