Production of Pectinolytic Enzymes by Two Bacillus spp. Strains and Their Application in Flax Degumming

This study demonstrated that Bacillus licheniformis HDYM-03 and Bacillus megaterium HDYM-09, isolated from a liquid sample of flax retting pool, were able to produce pectinolytic enzymes using polysaccharides as substrates. Bacillus megaterium HDYM-09 produced pectin lyase that exhibited the highest activity of 2116.71 ± 11.55 U/mL. Bacillus licheniformis HDYM-03 produced pectate lyase that exhibited the highest activity of 611.21 ± 14.54 U/mL. Based on these findings, we constructed four retting systems to degrade the pectin substance. The results showed that the content of galacturonic acid in the mixed system was 529.21 μg/mL, the content of reducing sugar was 98.14 mg/mL, and the weight loss ratio of cells reached 19.49%, which were significantly higher than those in other systems. The mixed system has more advantages, and the utilization rate of degumming was higher, which further ensured that the degumming can be carried out efficiently and quickly. The mixed system exhibits feasible applications in the fiber and textile industry. © 2018, Tianjin University and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.