ABSTRACT
The vast amount of chitin that is produced annually is virtually beyond one’s ability to conceptualize and yet only traces are present in marine sediments. Although other organisms are capable of degrading and digesting chitin (Bassler et al. 1991b; Kawachi et al. 2001; Lan et al. 2006; Zhu et al. 2007; Simunek et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2008a), which is a highly insoluble linear polysaccharide, it appears that the large quantity of this insoluble polymer is rapidly turned over by marine bacteria, at least in marine ecosystems (Bassler et al. 1989; Bassler et al. 1991a). Earlier studies demonstrated the signicant role of genes encoding some specic enzymes involved in the chitin catabolic pathway; however, the emerging picture shows that chitin catabolic mechanism follows a highly sophisticated and complex series of coordinated processes (Meadow et al. 1987; Yu et al. 1987, 1993; Keyhani and Roseman 1996a; Keyhani et al. 1996, 2000a; Park et al. 2000, 2002a,b; Meibom et al. 2004; Byung-Ok Jung and Park 2008). Although different genes and their protein products with potential functions in chitin and chitosan degradation and their catabolic pathways have been well studied, much deeper understanding is required to delineate the exact pathways of the chitin and chitosan catabolic processes in marine bacterium Vibrios and other chitosanolytic organisms. This chapter describes biologically functional enzymes involved in the chitin catabolic pathway in marine bacterium Vibrios.
