Fungal Cellulases X. Further Purification of the ?-Glucosidase of Stachybotrys Atra

Chromatographic methods for preparing a carbohydrate-protein complex containing an apparently homogeneous single ,a-glucosidase species are described. This complex may be disrupted to give an enzymically active, but very unstable protein. There seems to be a single ,a-glucosidase present in S. atra culture filtrates, fractionations on the column being due to complexing with polysaccharide. Many of the cases reported in the literature of "multiple enzyme components" in simi· lar systems have never been shown to have components of distinctly different enzyme properties. In the absence of such demonstrations, the present observations cast doubt on the individuality of these reported components in the iochemical sense and they may best be interpreted as a series of physically stable. complexes.