A Comparative Study of Lytic Enzyme Profiles for Food Borne Fungi

Abstract

Microorganisms, including fungi, are known to exert various functions and are being utilized for various purposes. The fungal invasion of the plants is thought to be completely enzymatic process, which are produced by the invading fungi. The major elements of plant cell walls are polysaccharide, hemicellulose and polymer, with polysaccharide being the foremost abundant part (Hans et al., 2003). Most of the fungi have the ability to penetrate to the cell wall of plants through the actions of different enzymes, that work solely or in combination to allow fungal hypae to invade through the broken cell wall. These enzymes are primarily cellulase, pectinase and amylase enzymes that soften the carbohydrate containing cell wall of plants (Gherbawy, 1998). Further, high water content in most of the fruits and vegetables, coupled with optimum pH conditions provides fungi an added advantage for the invasion and because of this, degradation due to fungi is a more common phenomenon. Refrigeration of fruits and vegetables at low temperatures is thought to be a good technique to avoid fungal invasion, though is not completely foolproof.