AYONA JAYADEV AND S.S. NAVAMI
Abstract
Microorganisms play a key role in making the planet clean and aesthetic by degrading the waste materials on the earth surface. They produce a wide range of enzymes by which they degrade the organic matter present on the earth surface. For the degradation of each kind of organic matter they produce specific enzymes. Isolation of the enzymes produced by native microorganisms prove to be of great importance in various industrial processes. The present study is undertaken to enrich and enumerate bacteria from a waste generated biofertilizer and to screen lipase producing bacteria. The various lipolytic bacteria isolated were also compared to find the most efficient lipid degrader. Finally culture conditions for optimum production and activity of lipase from this isolate was looked for. There was 232 x 10-4 CFU of bacteria per mg of biofertilizer. A total of 18 bacterial colonies were isolated from the sample. Out of these, 17 cultures showed production of lipase showing a decomposition zone around the culture in olive oil agar plates. The activities of all the 17 cultures were analyzed by inoculating in liquid media supplemented with olive oil and the quantity of production of fatty acids. All the cultures were found to have comparable lipase production. One culture, (Culture no. 12) was found to have a slightly higher activity than the rest. Effect of incubation time, temperature and pH on enzyme activity was optimized for culture number 12. It was identified that the best activity was shown at 24 hours at 35 °C and at a pH at around 7.