Physiological studies on the plant cell wall degrading enzymes of the rumen bacterium Ruminococcus flavefaciens

Two forms of Ruminococcus flavefaciens, the wild type and a trained culture of strain 17 were compared for their cellulose and xylan degradative ability when then were grown in ryegrass, cellobiose and xylan for different incubation times. No cell-associated corboxymethylcellulase (CMCase) activity was observed after 1-day incubation in cellobiose, as no supernatant activity was detected after 1 and 3 days incubation in xylan and 2 days incubation in cellobiose grown culture. Both CMCase and xylanase activities of trained culture were higher than those of wild type culture when they were grown in ryegrass. Wild type cultures, however, showed higher levels of both activities when grown in medium containing xylan.