Abstract:Leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) produced by Bacillus cereus CZ was investigated in this study. Results indicated that L-arabinose was the best carbon source for producing LAP, followed by D-galactose and lactose, whereas glucose, maltose, sucrose and sodium bicarbonate obviously inhibited LAP production. The production of LAP was also reduced largely when L-arabinose was mixed with other simple sugars, or Lactose/ D-galactose was mixed with glucose. The mixture of lactose and glucose was the optimal carbon sources for cell growth.When using 2% lactose, D-galactose and L-arabinose as carbon sources, LAP activities did not reach the maximum values after 48 h fermentation. For the sugar metabolic enzymes, β-galactosidase can be strongly induced by lactose. L-Arabinose had certain induction effect, while D-galactose had a strong depression effect. Galactokinase was induced significantly by D-galactose, followed by L-arabinose and lactose. L-arabinoseisomerase was induced strongly by L-arabinose, moderately by other simple sugars and mixed sugars. LAP production reached the highest with 4% L-arabinose and D-galactose. Extracelluar galactokinase decreased with increasing the sugar concentration, but intracellular enzymes showed the reverse trend. L-arabinoseisomerase increased with increasing concentration of L-arabinose. LAP production reached the highest when fermentation for 56 h with 4% L-arabinose. However, its production increased continuously with fermentation time when 4% D-galactose was used.