Phanerochaete chrysosporium extracellular enzymes P.

chrysosporium is known to secrete a large no of hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes for degradation of natural lignocellulosic material, which includes cellulases, hemicellulases and lignin degradation enzymes(paper). In addition to above enzymes, proteases are also produced to suffice the need of scavenging the nitrogen in the wood. Glycohydrolases are produced in wood and cellulose grown cultures and among them xylanases areproduced in higher amount in wood cultures than the cellulose cultures(paper). They are not found in glucose grown cultures. Peroxidases are seen in almost all the conditions but in higher concentration in wood cultures. Predominant among them are lignin peroxidases and manganese peroxidases which are also produced in glucose grown cultures(paper). P.chrysosporium also known to produce pectinase which is not produced by many wood degrading fungi(paper). Pectin although is made up of almost 4% of total wood, it is a good source of calcium which is needed for fungal cell wall(paper). P.chrysosporium is known to produce almost 5 kinds of peptidases which are related to aspartyl protease family (paper). They help in acquire the nitrogen form the wood by degradation of plant cell wall proteins. Almost all of them are produced in wood cultures and whereas three proteases are expressed in cellulose grown cultures. Apart from these aspartic proteases, P.chrysosporium is also known to produce acid proteinase and glutaminase which further assist in nitrogen metabolism (paper). Importance of protease and its relation to lignin degrading enzymes P.chrysosporium exhibits two kinds of protease activities in batch cultures(paper). The first or primary protease activity is lag and early log phase. It is seen to reach the maximum level on 2nd day and begins to plummet down till 4th day of incubation. This protease does not exhibit the ability to degrade the lignocellulose enzymes. The second or idiophase secondary protease activity is seen maximum on the 8th day(paper). They are able to cause protease mediated degradation of the ligin degrading enzymes (paper). They are induced by nitrogen starving and low glucose conditions. They are repressed by increase of glucose concentrations. In the earlier case, the primary protease help in degradation of lignin by its proteolytic activity on plant cell wall proteins and thereby assisting the nitrogen metabolism. In later case, secondary protease help in the scavenging the nitrogen from the liginin and cellulose degrading enzymes due to the low nitrogen levels in the environment.