Biochemical purification and characterization of a truncated acidic, thermostable chitinase from marine fungus for N-acetylglucosamine production.

N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is widely used in nutritional supplement and is generally produced from chitin using chitinases. While most GlcNAc is produced from colloidal chitin, it is essential that chitinases be acidic enzymes. Herein, we characterized an acidic, highly salinity tolerance and thermostable chitinase ChiJ, identified from the marine fungus df673.