부산대학교 도서관

The immediate objective of this project is to characterize and purify the enzymes involved in degrading organic sulfur in coal from two well characterization organic sulfur degrading strains, of Rhodococces rhodochorous IGTS8 and K3B. We believe that characterization and purification of these enzymes may provide valuable information that will lead to developing or isolating better strains for desulfurization of coal. Our recent results imply that the IGTS8 enzymes are firmly attached to the cell wall. For coal desulfurization it is better to have a microorganism that can secrete its desulfurization enzymes into the medium. The enzymes could permeate into coal much better than a bacterial cell. We seek that the isolation of a mutant of IGTS8 which can release the desulfurization enzymes in the cultural medium. During this period, we carried out more electron microscope analysis of IGTS8 and related species. These strains grow very poorly in DBT medium as well as in medium containing high sulfate concentration. Cells used for EM analysis were cultured in rich medium with glucose but found that there is no protruding structures on the cells of R. rhodochorous 184 and 13808. We believe that we should also examine the 183 and 13808 cells that have been cultured in the presence of DBT.