Isolation, Screening and Morphological Identification of Fungal L-Methionase from Ripen Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

L-Methionase is one of the few microbial enzymes with high therapeutic value since it has been reported as a effective anticancer agent against many types of tumor cell lines like breast, lung, colon, kidney and glioblastoma. L-Methionase is present in all organisms except in mammals. It mainly catalyzes the α, ϒ-elimination of L-Methionase to α-ketobutyrate, Methanethiol and ammonia. L-Methionase producing fungi was isolated from ripen fruits and vegetables. We obtain total 24 fungal isolates from ripen fruits and vegetables. Quantitative rapid plate assay test shows the ability of 7 of these isolates to grow with yellow zone surrounding their colonial growth, while 17 of these isolates could grow and utilize L-Methionine without any yellow zone around their colonial growth. Quantitative assay test shows the rate of L-Methionine production by all isolates tested. Nesslerization assay for detection of ammonia isolate no. MFL 24 (2.95 μmol/min/ml) and isolate MFL no. 9 (3.45 μmol/min/ml) show highest L-Methionase enzyme activity. The identification of fungi was carried out by macroscopic and microscopic examinations depend on the colony color, shape, hyphae, conidia, conidiophores and arrangement of spores.