Proteolytic Activity of Growth Media Filtrates from Non-pathogenic Species of Verticillium

Abstract

THE production of proteolytic enzymes by micro-organisms is widely recognized, and several have been obtained from fungi. In an attempt to identify the enzymatic activities of the filtrates of the growth media of members of the genus Verticillium, it was noted that filtrates of some non-pathogenic species of this group of fungi are able to lyse purified proteins and ovalbumin blocks. The number of investigations dealing with the production of proteases in micro-organisms is low¹. Recently our interest has centred on the genus Verticillium as a part of our investigations on the lytic activity of a non-pathogenic strain of Verticillium hemileiae on uredo-spores of various rusts². The results reported here are a consequence of some studies on the effectiveness of certain species of Verticillium controlling rust, as well as their in vivo effect on the pathogenicity of these organisms. To our knowledge, no results have been reported of the quantitative or qualitative aspects of proteolytic enzyme production by Verticillium.