Recently, some Mucorales species have been reported as protease producers. The production of extracellular proteases by Mucor circinelloides using glucose as substrate was studied. Experiments were carried out with different D-glucose concentrations (40, 60 and 80 g/L). Biomass, pH and protease activity were determined. Although biomass production had reached best yields for the medium containing D-glucose in a concentration of 80 g/L, the enzymatic production was higher when the substrate concentration was reduced to 40 g/L. The yield factor for product on cell growth and the yield factor for product on carbon substrate were higher when the microorganism grew in medium containing 40 g/L glucose. The kinetics parameters suggest that this strain seems to be promising as an alternative microorganism for protease production.
extracellular proteases; D-glucose; substrate; Mucor circinelloides
