JPH0636737B2 - Alkaline cellulase, microorganism producing the same, and method for producing alkaline cellulase - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a novel alkaline cellulase, a microorganism producing the same, and a method for producing the alkaline cellulase.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, the development of the fibrinolytic enzyme cellulase has been advanced with the major goal of effectively utilizing biomass resources (particularly cellulose resources), and in many cases, molds have been required to supply the sources. Strains that have been isolated as cellulase-producing bacteria are of various species, Aspergillus,
Mainly on filamentous fungi (molds) such as Penicillium, Trichoderma, Fusarium, Humicola, Acremonium, etc., and bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Cellulomonas, Luminococcus, Bacillus, etc., and further Streptomyces, Thermo It has also been reported in actinomycetes such as Actinomyces.

On the other hand, as a new industrial use of cellulase, its use as a blending component of a detergent for clothes has been studied and attracted attention (Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-49279, Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-23158, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-158). No. 36240). However, in the natural world, most cellulases produced by microorganisms are classified as so-called neutral or acid cellulases that show the maximum and stable enzyme activity in the neutral to acidic region, and are used for clothing. The fact is that the presence of cellulase that has the conditions for incorporation into a detergent composition, that is, so-called alkaline cellulase that exhibits maximum activity in the alkaline region, is extremely small. The alkaline cellulase referred to here is one having an optimum pH in the alkaline region.

That is, as a conventional method for producing an alkaline cellulase that can be used in a detergent composition for clothes, a method of collecting cellulase A by culturing an alkalophilic Bacillus bacterium (Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-28515), belongs to Cellulomonas genus. Alkaline cellulase 301-
A method for producing A (JP-A-58-224686), a method for culturing alkalophilic Bacillus No. 1139 to produce carboxymethylcellulase (Fukumori, F., Kudo, T. and Horiko
Shi , K., J. Gen. Microbiol. , 131, 3339, (1985)) and a method for producing an alkaline cellulase using a Streptomyces genus (JP-A 61-19483). However, none of them was suitable for industrial fermentative production.

However, recently, Bacillus sp. KSM-635 (FERM BP-1485) which is a kind of alkalophilic bacterium
(JP-A-63-109771) was found to produce a high amount of alkaline cellulase K (JP-A-63-109776) suitable as a detergent composition for clothes, and industrial fermentation of alkali cellulase. Production has been carried out. Furthermore, the alkaline cellulase (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-137677,240785,240) can be obtained not only by the alkalophilic bacterium but also by the neutral bacterium which can be easily cultured.
777,240786, JP 64-37285, S. Kawai et.
al., Agric.Biol.Chem. , 52 , 1425 (1988)) and an alkaline-tolerant cellulase capable of maintaining high activity even in the alkaline region ( JP-A-63-141586 , 146786 , 273474 , 273475 , 279790 , JP It has also been found that it is possible to produce (Kaisho 64-37286).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, the examples of alkaline cellulases suitable for industrial fermentation production have been only the above examples so far, and further development of alkaline cellulases having various characteristics and bacteria producing them has been desired.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The present inventor has sought a microorganism for producing alkaline cellulase in the natural world, and has continued to earnestly search, but recently, a microorganism belonging to the genus Bacillus collected from soil in Nasu-gun, Tochigi Prefecture,
The present invention was completed by discovering that it is effective as an additive component of a detergent composition for clothes and has a glucanase activity, and thus produces a novel alkaline cellulase which can be applied to the fields such as beer production.

Therefore, the present invention provides a novel alkaline cellulase K-19,
Microorganism that produces this (Bacillus sp. KSM-19)
And a method for producing the alkaline cellulase.

The above microorganism producing the alkaline cellulase of the present invention,
It shows the following mycological properties. In the following, 21 kinds of culture media used for the classification of strains are the following culture media 1 to 21, and these are all separately sterilized sodium carbonate (Na ₂ CO _2
3 ) 1.0% by weight (hereinafter, simply referred to as%).

Composition of medium used (indication:%): Medium 1. Nutrient Broth, 0.8; Bacto Agar,
1.5 Medium 2. Nutrient broth, 0.8 medium 3. Nutrient Broth, 0.8; Bact Gelatin, 20.0; Bact Agar, 1.5 Medium 4. Bactrims milk, 10.5 medium 5. Nutrient broth, 0.8; KNO ₃ , 0.1 medium 6. Bactopeptone, 0.7; NaC, 0.5; glucose, 0.5 medium 7. SIM agar medium, indicated amount Medium 8. TSI agar medium (manufactured by Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd.), indicated amount of medium 9. Bactopeptone, 1.5; Yeast extract, 0.5; Soluble starch, 2.0; K ₂ HPO ₄ , 0.1; MgSO ₄ / 7H ₂ O, 0.02; Bact agar, 1.5 medium 10.Koser medium, indicated amount medium 11.Christensen medium (Sakae) Kenken Chemical Co., Ltd., indicated amount medium 12. Yeast extract, 0.05; Na ₂ SO ₄ , 0.1; KH ₂ PO ₄ , 0.
1; glucose, 1.0 yeast _{extract, 0.05; Na 2 SO 4,} 0.1; KH 2 PO 4, 0.1; _{glucose, 1.0; CaC 2 · 2H 2} O, 0.05; MnSO 4 · 4~6H 2 O, 0.0
1; FeSO ₄ 7H ₂ O, 0.001; MgSO ₄ 7H ₂ O, 0.02 As a nitrogen source, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite,
Ammonium chloride and ammonium phosphate were used by adding them to the above medium so that the total nitrogen content was 0.0412 N%.

Medium 13. King A medium "Eiken" (Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd.), indicated amount Medium 14. King B medium "Eiken" (Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd.) indicated amount Medium 15. Urea medium "Eiken" (Eiken Inc.) Chemical), indicated amount Medium 16. Cytochrome oxidase test filter paper (Nissui Pharmaceutical) Medium 17.3% hydrogen peroxide water Medium 18. Bactopeptone, 0.5; Yeast extract, 0.5; Glucose, 1.0; K ₂ HPO ₄ , 0.1; MgSO ₄ .7H ₂ O, 0.02 medium 19. Bactopeptone, 2.7; NaC, 5.5; glucose, 0.5; K ₂ HPO ₄ , 0.3; bromthymol blue, 0.06;
Bacto agar, 1.5 Medium _{20. (NH 4) 2 HPO 4} , 0.1; KC, 0.02; MgSO 4 · 7H 2 O, 0.
02; yeast extract, 0.05; sugar, 1.0 Medium 21. casein, 0.5; Bacto agar, 1.5; yeast extract, 0.5; _{glucose, 1.0; K 2 HPO 4,} 0.1; MgSO 4 · 7H 2 O, 0.0
2 (Mycological properties) (a) Microscopic observation results The size of the bacterium is a rod-shaped bacterium having a size of 0.5 to 1.2 μm × 1.2 to 5.8 μm, and an oval endospore (0.7 to 1.2 μm x
1.2-1.7 μm). It has periflagellates and is motile. Gram stain is positive.

(b) Growth condition in various media Meat agar plate culture (medium 1) Growth condition is good. The shape of the settlement is irregular, the surface is smooth and the periphery is wavy. The color tone of the village is milky white and glossy.

Broth liquid culture (medium 2) Good growth.

Meat broth gelatin stab culture (medium 3) Good growth. Liquefaction of gelatin was observed.

Litmus milk medium (medium 4) No milk coagulation or peptone formation is observed. Also, discoloration of litmus cannot be determined because the medium is alkaline.

(c) Physiological properties Nitrate reduction and denitrification (Medium 5) Nitrate reduction is positive. Denitrification reaction is negative.

 MR test (medium 6) Negative or positive cannot be determined.

 VP test (medium 6) positive.

 Formation of indole (medium 7) Negative.

 Production of hydrogen sulfide (medium 8) Negative.

 Starch hydrolysis (medium 9) positive.

Utilization of citric acid (Medium 10, 11) Negative in Cosa medium. In Kristensen's medium, it cannot be determined whether it is negative or positive.

 Use of inorganic nitrogen source (medium 12) Both nitrate and ammonium salts are used.

 Production of pigment (Medium 13, 14) A yellow pigment is produced in King B medium.

 Urease (medium 15) negative.

 Oxidase (medium 16) positive.

 Catalase (medium 17) positive.

Growth range (medium 18) The growth temperature range is 20 to 37 ° C, and the optimum growth temperature range is 30 to 37 ° C. PH range of growth is pH 7-11, optimal growth
The pH was pH 10.5.

 Attitude toward oxygen Aerobic.

OF test (medium 19) Since it is alkaline, discoloration cannot be determined. Only grows in aerobic conditions.

Utilization of sugar (medium 20, +: grows, −: does not grow) L-arabinose + 2. D-xylose + 3. D-glycose + 4. D-mannose + 5. D-fructose +6. D-galactose + 7. Maltose + 8. Sucrose + 9. Lactose + 10. Trehalose + 11. D-Sorbit-12. D-Mannit + 13. Neusit-14. Glycerin + 15. Starch + Growth in salt-containing medium (modified medium 1) At 7% salt concentration Good growth. It does not grow at 10%.

 Casein degradation (medium 21) Positive.

G + C content (Tm method) The G + C content of the DNA of the bacterium of the present invention is about 38.0 mol%.

Based on the above studies on mycological properties,
Bergey's Mannual of Systematic Bacteriology
Volume 2 and The Genus Bacillus
cillus ”Ruth, E.Gordon, Agriculture Handbook NO.427,
Agricultural Research Service, USDepartment of Ag
riculture Washington DC, (1973)), a comparative search revealed that the strain was Bacillus (Bacillus)
It is recognized as a kind of genus lus). However, since this strain cannot grow in the neutral region and shows good growth exclusively in the alkaline region, recently, Horikoshi and Akiba (“Alkaloph
ilic Microorganism ”, Japan Scientific Society Pre
ss (Tokyo), published in 1982) and belongs to so-called Alkalophilic bacteria, which is distinguished from conventional neutral-growing Bacillus bacteria.

Since the above-mentioned mycological properties of this strain do not match any of the known alkalophilic Bacillus, it was judged as a new strain and named Bacillus sp. KSM-19. In the place
No. (FERM P-10481).

To produce the alkaline cellulase of the present invention, for example, CMC
There may be mentioned a method of measuring an ase activity and / or a glucanase activity, selecting an alkaline cellulase-producing bacterium, culturing the same, and obtaining the alkaline cellulase from the culture. Furthermore, the alkaline cellulase of the present invention is, for example, the above-mentioned alkaliphilic Bacillus sp. KSM-19 (FERM P-10
481) and various mutant strains having high titer of the enzyme productivity, which are induced thereby, can be produced by a fermentation method.

In addition, Bacillus sp.KSM-64 (FERM P-10482) also has β-1,3
It has been clarified by the present inventors to produce alkaline cellulase K-64, which is an alkaline cellulase having a high decomposition activity for −; 1,4-glucan and β-1,3-glucan. Therefore, in order to carry out the production method of the present invention, KSM-64 may be used in addition to KSM-19, and mutants thereof may be used.

In order to obtain the alkaline cellulase of the present invention using the above strain, the strain may be inoculated into a suitable medium and cultured according to a conventional method. As the culture medium, a medium containing a combination of an assimilable nitrogen source and a carbon source is used. The carbon source and the nitrogen source are not particularly limited. For example, as the nitrogen source, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, ammonium phosphate, sodium nitrate, corn gluten meal,
Soybean flour, corn steep liquor, casamino acid, yeast extract, pharma media, sardine meal, meat extract, peptone, high pro, ajpower, corn soybean meal, coffee meal, cottonseed oil meal, cultivator, adipron, zest, etc. The sources include rice husk, rice,
Filter paper, general paper, vegetable fiber such as sawdust, molasses, invert sugar, CMC, Avicel, cellulose cotton, xylan, pectin, ribose, arabinose, xylose, glucose, mannose, fructose, galactose, lactose,
Maltose, sucrose, trehalose, mannitol, glycerin, starch, acetic acid and the like can be mentioned. In addition, inorganic salts such as phosphoric acid, Mg ²⁺ , Ca ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ , Zn ²⁺ , Co ²⁺ , Na ⁺ , K ⁺ and, if necessary, inorganic and organic micronutrient sources are added. You can also do it.

Collection and purification of the target substance, alkaline cellulase, from the thus obtained culture, as shown in Examples below,
It can be carried out according to a general method for collecting and purifying an enzyme. That is, the crude enzyme solution can be obtained by removing the bacterial cells from the culture by a usual solid-liquid separation means such as centrifugation or filtration. This crude enzyme solution can be used as it is, but if necessary, a crude enzyme is obtained by a separation means such as a salting-out method, a precipitation method, an ultrafiltration method, and further purified and crystallized by a known method and purified. It is also possible to use it as an enzyme.

Next, the enzymatic properties of the thus obtained novel enzyme of the present invention, alkaline cellulase K-19, will be described.

The enzyme activity was measured according to the following method.

(1) CMCase activity 2.5% CMC (Sunrose A01L, Sanyo Kokusaku Pulp Co., Ltd.) 0.4
m, 500 mM glycine buffer (pH 9) 0.2 m, and deionized water 0.3 m in a substrate solution of enzyme solution 0.1 m
Was added and reacted at 30 ° C. for 20 minutes. After the reaction, 3,5-
3,5-dinitro-salicylic acid (DN
The reducing sugar was quantified by the S)) method. That is, the reaction solution 1.0m
DNS reagent (1.0 m) was added to the mixture, and color was developed by heating at 100 ° C. for 5 minutes. After cooling, 4.0 m of deionized water was added to dilute, and colorimetric determination was performed at a wavelength of 535 nm. The titer of the enzyme was set such that the amount of the enzyme that produces a reducing sugar corresponding to 1 μmol of glucose per minute was 1 unit.

The buffer solutions used are as follows.

pH3-8 McIlvain buffer pH8-11 Glycine-sodium hydroxide buffer pH12-13 Potassium chloride-sodium hydroxide buffer (2) p-nitrophenyl glucoside and p-nitrophenyl cellobioside degrading activity 0.8 μmol p- Nitrophenyl cellobioside (manufactured by Sigma) or p-nitrophenyl glucoside (manufactured by Sigma) and 50 μmol phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) or 100
Reaction solution containing μmol glycine buffer (pH 9) 1.
After applying an appropriate amount of enzyme solution in 0 m at 30 ° C, 1
M Na ₂ CO ₃ was added to 0.4 m, and the released p-nitrophenol was colorimetrically determined at 410 nm. The enzyme titer was defined as 1 unit of the amount of enzyme that liberates 1 μmol of p-nitrophenol per minute.

(3) Avicel, cellulose powder, phosphoric acid swelling cellulose, alkali swelling cellulose and filter paper degrading activity 10 mg Avicel (Merck) and 100 μmol glycine buffer (pH 9) in a reaction solution 1.0m containing an appropriate amount of enzyme, The reaction was carried out at 30 ° C. with shaking at 280 rpm. After the reaction, the reducing sugar was quantified by the DNS method. The enzyme titer was defined as 1 unit of the amount of enzyme that produced a reducing sugar corresponding to 1 μmol of glucose per minute.

Other activities were also performed according to the above method. As the substrate, cellulose powder manufactured by Toyo Roshi Kaisha, Cellulase activity assay filter paper (Toyo No. 51-Special), and the method of Tomita et al.
mita, Y. et al .; J. Fermet. Technol., 52 , 235, 1974), alkali-swelling cellulose and phosphoric acid-swelling cellulose were used.

(4) β-1,3-; 1,4-glucanase activity, β-1,3-glucanase activity β-1,3-; 1,4-glucanase activity, β-1,3-glucanase activity is a substrate As Rikenan (from Usnera barub
ata manufactured by Sigma) and laminarin (from Laminaria digi
The activity was measured according to (3) using tata (manufactured by Sigma).

(Enzymatic properties) (1) Action It acts well on fibrin such as CMC, cellulose powder, and Avicel, and dissolves them to produce reducing sugar.

(2) Substrate specificity Table 1 shows an example of the substrate specificity of this enzyme. In addition to CMC, this enzyme is used in addition to CMC, cellulose powder, phosphoric acid swollen cellulose, Avicel, alkali swollen cellulose, filter paper, p-
It has activity on nitrophenyl glucoside, p-nitrophenyl cellobioside, etc., and further has β-1,3-; 1,4-
It has a very high hydrolytic activity on lichenan, which is a glucan,
It also acted on laminarin, a β-1,3-glucan.

(3) Working pH and optimum pH The working pH range for CMC is as wide as 4.5 to 12.5,
The optimum working pH is 9.0. Further, it has a relative activity of 50% or more of the activity at the optimum pH even in the range of 7.0 to 11.0 (Fig. 1).

(4) pH stability The pH stability was investigated by measuring the residual activity after each pH was maintained at 30 ° C for 1 hour. As a result, it is extremely stable in the range of pH 4.5 to 11.0, and about 5 in the range of pH 4.0 to 12.0.
It maintains an activity of 0% or more (Fig. 2).

(5) Action temperature and optimum temperature The present enzyme acts in a wide range of 10 to 70 ° C, and the optimum temperature is 50 ° C. Further, it has 50% or more of the activity at the optimum temperature even in the range of 35 to 60 ° C (Fig. 3).

(6) Temperature stability In the glycine-NaOH buffer solution (pH 9.0), the residual activity after heat treatment at each temperature for 10 minutes was measured.
Almost no deactivation even at 0 ℃, and about 50% even at 55 ℃
Had residual activity (Fig. 4).

(7) Molecular weight The enzyme has a molecular weight of about 12 ± 20,000 and 3.4 ± 0.2 according to the gel filtration method using Biogel A 0.5 m (manufactured by Bio-Rad).
It has an activity peak with CMC as a substrate.

(8) Effects of metal ions Various metal ions (Na ⁺ , K ⁺ , Ca ²⁺ , Cu ²⁺ , Co ²⁺ , Cd ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ , Mg
²⁺ , Ba ²⁺ , Ni ²⁺ , Hg ²⁺ , Fe ²⁺ , Pb ²⁺ , Zn ²⁺ , A ³⁺ , Fe ³⁺ ) coexisted during the activity measurement and the effect was examined.
Addition of g ²⁺ , Pb ²⁺ (1 mM) gave an inhibitory effect, and Co ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ (1
Addition of mM) gave an activating effect.

(9) Effect of surfactants This enzyme can be used with various surfactants (for example, LAS, AS, ES, AOS, α
-Inhibition of enzyme activity was not observed even when 0.05% of SFE, SAS, soap, polyoxyethylene secondary alkyl ether, SDS) was added.

(10) Effect of protease Protease for detergent, for example, API-21 (Showa Denko), Maxatase (IBIS), Savinase, Alcalase, Esperase (Novo) coexist (0.2AU /) at the time of activity measurement,
When its influence was examined, it was found to have strong resistance to any protease.

(11) Effect of chelating agent Chelating agent EDTA, EGTA, sodium tripolyphosphate,
Zeolites and citric acid were made to coexist during the activity measurement, and the effect was examined, but no inhibition was observed.

〔The invention's effect〕

The alkaline cellulase K-19 of the present invention has an optimum pH of 9, but has a relative activity of 50% or more of the activity at the optimum pH even within the range of pH 7.0 to 11.0, and has a pH of 4.5 to It is extremely stable in the range of 11.0. Further, it is hardly affected by the detergent-containing components such as surfactants, proteases and chelating agents. Therefore, the present enzyme can be advantageously used as a blending component of a detergent composition.

The alkaline cellulase of the present invention is β-1,3-;
Since it has glucanase activity and β-1,3-glucanase activity, β-glucan derived from grains such as barley can be decomposed. Therefore, for example, it can be used for a technique such as shortening the filtration time of wort during beer production or preventing turbidity of product beer.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples.
The present invention is not limited to these.

Example 1 A spoonful (about 0.5 g) of the soil in Nasu-gun, Tochigi Prefecture was taken, suspended in sterile physiological saline, and heat-treated at 80 ° C. for 10 minutes.
The supernatant of this heat treatment solution was appropriately diluted and applied to a separation agar medium (medium A). Then, this was cultured at 30 ° C. for 3 days to form a colony. CMCase-producing bacteria were obtained by selecting those that form a transparent zone due to the dissolution of CMC around the settlement.

Subsequently, the obtained strain was transplanted to an agar medium containing 1% of lichenan instead of CMC of the medium A, and cultured at 30 ° C. for 3 days to form a colony. A lichenase-producing bacterium was obtained by selecting those that form a zona pellucida due to decomposition of lichenan around the settlement by the Congo red method.

Further, the obtained bacteria were inoculated into the liquid medium of the medium B, and cultured at 30 ° C. for 3 days with shaking. After culturing, the CMCase activity and lichenase activity of the supernatant obtained by centrifugation were measured at pH 3 to 13 to select alkaline cellulase-producing bacteria.

The KSM-19 bacterium of the present invention (FERM P-10481) could be obtained by the method described above.

Example 2 The Bacillus sp. KSM-19 strain obtained in Example 1 was used in Example 1.
Was inoculated into the liquid medium B, and cultured at 30 ° C. for 3 days with shaking.
After culturing, bacterial cells were removed by centrifugation to obtain a crude enzyme solution. Furthermore, a cellulase enzyme preparation (Table 2) could be obtained by ethanol dry powder according to a usual method.

Example 3 In liquid medium B of Example 1, 1% of cellobiose was used instead of CMC. KSM-19 was inoculated into a medium containing 5% of CSL instead of polypeptone, and the mixture was shake-cultured at 30 ° C. for 2 to 3 days. As a result of measuring the CMCase activity of the centrifuged supernatant, a CMCase activity of 769 U /, a lichenan degrading activity of 1238 U /, and a laminarin degrading activity of 285 U / were obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a drawing showing the relationship between the reaction pH and relative activity of the alkaline cellulase of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a drawing showing the relationship between the treatment pH and the residual activity, and FIG. 3 is a drawing of the alkaline cellulase of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a drawing showing the relationship between reaction temperature and relative activity, and FIG. 4 is a drawing showing the relationship between treatment temperature and residual activity.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Reference number within the agency FI technical display location C12R 1:07) (72) Inventor Shuji Kawai 308 Takebayashi, Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture (72) Inventor Susumu Ito 3441-64 Higashiminecho, Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An alkaline cellulase K-19 having the following physicochemical properties. (1) Action It acts well on fibrin such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), cellulose, filter paper, and Avicel, and dissolves them to form reducing sugar. (2) Substrate specificity In addition to CMC, it has activity against cellulose powder, phosphoric acid swollen cellulose, alkali swollen cellulose, Avicel, filter paper, p-nitrophenyl glucoside and p-nitrophenyl cellobioside. (3) Working pH and optimum pH The working pH range for CMC is 4.5 to 12.5. The optimum pH is 9, and even in the range of 7.0 to 11.0, the relative activity is 50% or more of the activity at the optimum pH. (4) pH stability When CMC is used as a substrate, it is extremely stable at pH 4.5 to 11.0 and does not inactivate, and maintains an activity of about 50% or more even at pH 4.0 to 12.0. (5) Optimum temperature The working temperature for CMC is in a wide range from 10 to 70 ℃,
The optimum temperature is 50 ° C. Further, it has 50% or more of the activity at the optimum temperature even in the range of 35 to 60 ° C. (6) It has activity peaks at molecular weights of approximately 12 ± 10,000 and 3.4 ± 0.2000 (minute peaks). (By a gel filtration method using Biogel A 0.5m.) (7) Effect of metal ions When CMC is used as a substrate, it is inhibited by Hg ²⁺ and Pb ²⁺ , and Co
It is activated by ²⁺ and Mn ²⁺ . (8) Effect of surfactant When CMC is used as a substrate, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, alkyl sulfate, polyoxyethylene alkyl sulfonate, α-olefin sulfonate, 2-sulfo fatty acid salt, secondary alkane Sulfonates, dodecyl sulfonates, soaps and polyoxyethylene secondary alkyl ethers hardly inhibit the activity. (9) Effect of protease When CMC is used as a substrate, it has resistance to protease. (10) Effect of chelating agent When CMC is used as a substrate, EDTA, EGTA, citric acid, sodium tripolyphosphate, and zeolite do not inhibit the activity. 2. Bacillus sp. KSM-19, which has been deposited as Microindustrial Research Institute No. 10481 and has the ability to grow in an alkaline medium to produce the alkaline cellulase K-19 according to claim 1. 3. Alkaline cellulase K belonging to the genus Bacillus
A method for producing alkaline cellulase K-19, which comprises culturing a -19-producing bacterium and obtaining the alkaline cellulase K-19 according to claim 1 from the culture.