Plant endophytes are among the most important resources of biologically active metabolites.Twenty-three endophyte strains residing in Trachelospermum jasminoides were cultivated In with the cultures assayed for the fibrinolytic substance production.As a result,the culture of Verticillium sp.Tj33 was shown to be the most active.A fibrinolytic enzyme designated as verticase was subsequently purified from the supernatant of Verticillium sp.culture broth by a combination of DEAE-52,Sephadex G-75 and hydrophobic column chromatographies.Verticase,with its molecular mass of 31 kDa and pl of 8.5,was demonstrated to be homogeneous by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing electrophoresis.Verticase is an enzyme that hydrolyzes fibrin directly without activation of plaminogen.It was stable in a broad pH range from 4 through to 11 with the optimal reaction pH value and temperature shown to be around 9-10 and 50-60℃,respectively.The fibrinolytic activity of verticase was severely inhibited by phenylmethylsulfony fluoride,Indicating that verticase was a serine protease.