ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Abrar Ali Khan, Anup K. Singh, Ritesh S. Bankar, Priyanka Dutta and Anil M. Limaye
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039 India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2012;6(2):737-746
© The Author(s). 2012
Received: 09/03/2012 | Accepted: 10/04/2012 | Published: 30/06/2012
Abstract

Three bacterial strains capable of producing extracellular proteases were isolated based on their ability to digest skimmed milk. One of these strains (designated as PD1) was identified as Bacillus cereus. Proteases secreted by PD1 were found to retain activity despite exposure to 65°C. Here, we have characterized the strain PD1 and its extracellular proteases and explored the possibility of recycling whey as a growth medium. Antibiotic sensitivity and carbohydrate utilization tests were performed. The kinetics of growth and protease secretion by PD1 were also established using LB broth or pH adjusted whey. It was found that protease activity in the culture supernatant was induced in the stationary phase of growth. Importantly, the stationary phase culture supernatants of PD1 in whey showed maximal protease activity at pH 8.0 and reaction temperature of 56-65°C. The data indicates that PD1 could prove to be a useful source of industrially relevant proteases. Furthermore, this study suggests a possible method of recycling whey to prevent pollution due to whey disposal.

Keywords

Bacillus cereus, Whey, Extracellular protease

Article Metrics

Article View: 597

Share This Article

© The Author(s) 2012. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.