Esculin gel diffusion assay (EGDA):A simple and sensitive method for screening beta-glucosidases

摘要

beta-Glucosidase is an important component of the cellulose degrading enzyme system.The enzyme has other biological applications as well.Often a large number of samples have to be screened for beta-glucosidase activity,such as fractions obtained from column chromatography or environmental samples.A gel diffusion technique is presented for screening any number of samples with less labour and cost as compared to other screening methods used.The technique is based on the well-established reaction of beta-glucosidase with esculin.Chromatographic fractions were successfully screened to the same degree of accuracy as one of the most commonly used p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside assay.