Isolation of Thermostable Protease Producing Bacteria from the Microbial Mats

As thermostable protease has more commercial value in different industries, the aim of this study was to search for such an enzyme producing bacteria from the microbial mats. Investigation was continued on the isolate for its ability to produce mass amount of enzyme and its activity under suitable optimized conditions. Different parameters including cheap carbon and nitrogen substrates, inoculum size and temperature was selected to optimize the enzyme production conditions. Initially five different isolates from two microbial mats collected from different sources were analyzed for its ability to produce thermostable protease after exposing to higher temperature incubation conditions. Test culture tentatively named as 1F from microbial mat-1 was selected as more enzyme producer among the ten isolates. The organism was selected based on the zone of clearance on skim milk agar by the isolate, that indicating more protease production. Under each optimization parameter, each type of carbon (Lactose), and nitrogen (yeast extract) source showed more enzyme production and activity respectively. About 1% inoculum size and a thermostable temperature of 45°C produced significant amount of enzyme and its activity. The obtained results emphasized the need for thermostable protease for different commercial industries in the existing and near future.