Investigations on Hydrolytic Activities from Stachybotrys microspora and Their Use as an Alternative in Yeast DNA Extraction Salma Abdeljalil & Ines Ben Hmad & Walid Saibi & Bahia Amouri & Wiem Maalej & Marwa Kaaniche & Aida Koubaa & Ali Gargouri Received: 12 June 2013 /Accepted: 23 October 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Stachybotrys microspora is a filamentous fungus characterized by the secretion of multiple hydrolytic activities (cellulolytic and non-cellulolytic enzymes). The production of these biocatalysts was studied under submerged culture using glucose, cellulose, and wheat bran as carbon sources. Endoglucanases, pectinases, xylanases, β-glucanases, chitinases, and proteases were induced on cellulose-based medium and repressed on glucose in both strains with higher amounts produced by the mutant. β-glucosidases were roughly equally produced by both strains under glucose and cellulose conditions. The yield of chitinases, β-glucanases, and proteases produced by Stachybotrys strains was as much higher than the com- mercialized lysing enzyme called “zymolyase,” currently used in yeast DNA extraction. In this context, we showed that S. microspora hydrolases can be successfully applied in the extraction of yeast DNA. Keywords Stachybotrys . Mutant . Hydrolytic activities . Lysing enzymes . Yeast DNA extraction Introduction Using multiple extracellular hydrolase activities, fungi decompose the plant cell walls to utilize carbon sources during hyphal growth and to attack the cell walls of other microorganisms to protect themselves. Hypocrea jecorina is the workhorse organism for a number of industrial enzyme companies for the production of cellulases [1], while other fungi such as Aspergillus niger or Trichoderma harzianum are used for their pectinases or their chitinases and β- glucanases, respectively. The cell wall-degrading enzymes (CWDE) comprise cellulases, pectinases, and hemicellulases when considering the plant cell wall [2] and β-glucanases Appl Biochem Biotechnol DOI 10.1007/s12010-013-0608-1 S. Abdeljalil (*) : I. Ben Hmad : W. Saibi : B. Amouri : W. Maalej : M. Kaaniche : A. Koubaa : A. Gargouri Laboratoire de Valorisation de la Biomasse et Production de Protéines chez les Eucaryotes Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Sidi Mansour, BP 1177, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia e-mail: salma.abdeljalil@gmail.com