I found in many research articles, the use of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as substrate for cellulases activity measurement because of its solubility compared to cellulose. But the CMC is not the natural substrate for cellulases. Therefore, the results obtained may be misleading.
Is it normal to use CMC as substrate for cellulases ?
What are the alternatives that give significant results ?
CMC is readily degradad by endoglucanases, that's why it is used very frequently. However, you are quite correct, the activity measured with CMC does not predict the activity on natural substrates, which requires a mix of endoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, and beta-glucosidases; as substrates reflecting more closely the properties of natural cellulose, cellulose preparations containing at least a fraction of crystalline cellulose should be preferred, such as Avicel or bacterial microcrystalline cellulose.
do you know where can I buy it? I just found CMC aggregated with salts, is it suitable for enzyme activity analysis?
Hello Alessandra,
According to some articles, they use CMC as substrate and red congo to determine cellulase activity. Others authors used microcrystaline cellulose with aniline blue. You can find both in SIGMA, for example.
Such substrates are commonly used to make the enzyme assay easy and less time consuming at laboratory level. For example, for carboxypeptidase B - benzoyl-Gly↓Arg, for trypsin BAEE are used .... these and many other substances are not natural substrates. However, these enzymes have shown similar activity when applied to their natural substrates in vitro.
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