LEVAN PRODUCTION POTENTIALS FROM DIFFERENT HYPERSALINE ENVIRONMENTS IN TURKEY

Abstract

12  halophilic strains from different hypersaline environments such as solar salterns in Tuzlagözü (Sivas), Fadlum (Sivas), Kemah (Erzincan), a hypersaline spring water in Pülümür (Tunceli) and a saline lake in Delice (Kırıkkale) belonging to Turkey, were investigated in terms of levan production. After incubation and ethyl alcohol treatment, dialysis process was operated for partial purification.  Levan amounts in our samples after hydrolysis were calculated based on the amount of sugar obtained by acid hydrolysis of standard levan. Sugar amount of samples were determined using by high performance liquid chromatography system (HPLC). ¹H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H-NMR) spectra of the levan sample and standard were recorded. The results obtained by HPLC analysis showed that Chromohalobacter canadensis strain 85B had highest production potential as 234.67 mg levan/g biomass.  The chemical shifts of ¹H-NMR spectrum of the extracted levan also showed high similarity to those of pure levan isolated from Erwinia herbicola. Furthermore, Marinobacter sp. 163Y strain also is also capable with regard to levan production. In this study, this strain could yield 230.80 mg/g levan and this potential was first reported in the literature.