ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER Characterization of industrially-valuable xylano- pectinolytic enzymes produced concurrently by a novel isolate of Bacillus pumilus Amanjot Kaur • Avtar Singh • Ritu Mahajan Received: 19 May 2014 / Accepted: 19 June 2014 / Published online: 22 July 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract Xylanase and polygalacturonase were concurrently produced by a novel alkalo-thermotoler- ant Bacillus pumilus AJK. They were purified and characterized to evaluate their potential for various industrial applications. Xylanase was purified to 19-fold with 67 % recovery and polygalacturonase up to 23-fold with 75 % recovery. Existence of multiple forms of xylanase was indicated by its elution-profile through Sephadex G-100 as two peaks, xylanase-I and xylanase-II, with molecular weights of *24.5 and *13 kDa, respectively, and by the presence of two pH optima, one at pH 6.0 and other at pH 8.5. The molecular weight of polygalacturonase was *40 kDa by gel-filtration chromatography. Zy- mographic studies confirmed the presence of seven isozymic forms of xylanase. Xylanase and polygalac- turonase are stable over a broad range of pH and temperature. Keywords Bacillus pumilus Á Pectinase Á Polygalacturonase Á Purification Á Ultrafiltration Á Xylanase Á Xylano-pectinolytic enzyme Á Zymography Introduction Xylanases and pectinases are produced by microorgan- isms but there are only three reports, two concerning fungi (Botella et al. 2007; Gomes et al. 1992) and one concerning Streptomyces sp. (Beg et al. 2000), showing the production of these two industrially-valuable enzymes in combination from the same isolate, but these workers have not reported the presence of acidic and alkaline forms of xylanase. In this study, the industrially- important Bacillus pumilus AJK produces xylanase and polygalacturonase in combination. Purification of these enzymes is necessary to know the various characteristics of these enzymes so that they could be efficiently used for various industrial purposes. This is the first report of the purification of concurrently produced xylanase and polygalacturonase from a bacterium. The unique property of this multifunctional strain (high concurrent producer of acidic xylanase, alkaline xylanase and pectinase in the same production media, is desirable from economic point of view) has not been reported earlier in bacteria. Multiple forms of xylan- ases (acidic and alkaline) show its suitability for wide range of industrial applications. The xylanase and polygalacturonase produced simultaneously were purified and extensively characterized for various properties like, pH optima, temperature optima, sta- bility at different temperature and pH values, kinetic properties, molecular weight, activities of these enzymes in the presence of various additives etc. to find their suitability in various industries. A. Kaur Á A. Singh Á R. Mahajan (&) Department of Biotechnology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136119, India e-mail: ritupanipat@rediffmail.com A. Kaur e-mail: amanjotbiotech@gmail.com A. Singh e-mail: avtarsingh87@gmail.com 123 Biotechnol Lett (2014) 36:2229–2237 DOI 10.1007/s10529-014-1595-1