Uncoupling chitosanase production from chitosan

Abstract

There is a growing interest in chitosanases as enzymatic tools to hydrolyze chitosan into bioactive forms: low molecular weight chitosan (LMWC) or chitosan oligosaccharides (CHOS). However chitosanases are still expensive and methods of large-scale production of these enzymes are not yet established. The article reviews the approaches used for chitosanase production in various bacterial hosts, pointing out the difficulties resulting from the necessity to include chitosan into the medium composition. A mutated Streptomyces host allows for the efficient production of several chitosanases originating from actinobacteria in the absence of chitosan as inducer.