The novel intracellular GH10 xylanase (iXylC) gene (1023-bp) of Cohnella laeviribosi HY-21 encoded a protein consisting of 340 amino acids with a deduced molecular mass of 39,330 Da and a calculated pl of 5.81. The primary structure of iXylC was 70% identical to that of Geobacillus sp. GH10 enzyme (GenBank accession number: EDV78425). Xylanolytic activity of the His-tagged iXylC overproduced in Escherichia coli BL21 was stimulated by 2.2-fold in the presence of 0.5% non-ionic detergents. iXylC produced a mixture of xylooligosaccharides (xylobiose to xylooctaose) from xylotriose and xylotetraose used as the hydrolytic substrate. In addition, it exhibited considerable cleavage activities for p-nitrophenylxylopyranoside (PNP-xylopyranoside) and PNP-cellobioside, indicating that iXylC is a unique GH10 enzyme. The hydrolytic activity (57.8 IU mL(-1)) of iXylC toward PNP-xylopyranoside increased to 8.3-fold by W217A and W315A mutations, while mutations of W133A, W295A, and W303A abolished the hydrolytic activity of the enzyme. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.