Abstract:

In food fermentation, some molds including Mucor and Rhizopus of Phycomycetes, Monascus of Ascomycetes, and Aspergillus and Penicillium of Deuteromycetes were usually used to produce endopeptidases, which is of important practical value in milk coagulation, hydrolyte preparation from protein and contribution to nice flavor in the production of dairy products and soybean fermentation products. This paper reviewed the properties and the fermentation conditions for endopeptidase production by Mucor, Aspergillus and Rhizopus, respectively, emphatically compared the endopeptidase characteristics, cleavage sites for substrate reaction and fermentation parameters, hoping to  provide some scientific bases for deep study on the properties of endopeptidase production by the above three molds and further development of distinctive protease preparation.

Key words: mold, Mucor, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, fermentation, endopeptidase