Purification of α-toxin (phospholipase C) obtained from Clostridium perfringens type a using aqueous two-phase systems in a discontinuous and continuous mode

Author(s)

Maria Taciana Cavalcanti Vieira Soares

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ)
• Defense date: 2005-12-13

Examining board members

Adalberto Pessoa Junior; Silgia Aparecida da Costa; José Luiz de Lima Filho; Bronislaw Polakiewicz; Elias Basile Tambourgi

• Advisor: Adalberto Pessoa Junior

Abstract

The aim this work was purification alpha-toxin (phospholipase C) produced by Costridium perfringens type A by aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) PEG/phosphate in discontinue and continue mode. Two sequential half-fraction designs were applied to studying the ∝-toxin partition in ATPS, as a function of four factors: PEG molar mass and concentration, phosphate concentration and pH. The highest purification factor, yield and partition coefficient results were obtained with PEG 8000 (15%, w/w), phosphate at 20% (w/w) and pH 8.0. This system allows an ∝-toxin purification of 4.6 fold with final activity yield of 230% and partition coefficient of 113.9 in the PEG rich phase. After this, new experiments were realized for the optimization of ∝-toxin purification with employed of full experimental design. In this research the concentration of PEG 8000 g/mol and phosphate salts pH 8.0 were varied. The partition coefficient (K), purification factor (Pf) and activity yield (Y%) were strongly influenced for these variables. Increasing both factors was observed an increase of these responses, except for P Pf. The higher purification factor (5.7) was obtained with 17.5% and 15% of the PEG and phosphate concentration, respectively. A continuous perforated rotating disc contactor (PRDC) was used for extraction of ∝-toxin from the supernatant of Clostridium perfringens type A cultivations with polyethylene glycol (PEG) (MW = 8,000 g/mol) and dipotassium and sodium phosphate salt solution (pH 8.0). The results obtained demonstrated that VD = 3 L/min was by far the optimum dispersed phase flowrate for all these response variables. Besides, maximum values of ED (0.8), Es (100 %) and Pf (2.37) were obtained at this flowrate using the lowest rotational speed (35 rpm), while optimum KDa (2.8 x 10-3 min-1 ) was achieved at the highest agitation level (140 rpm). (AU)