GARGI UPADYAY AND PRASANNA DHARANI AIYER
Abstract
Among different types of enzymes obtained from microbial sources, amylases are the most widely used in industries as well as on commercial basis. Amylase production from bacteria is economical as the enzyme production rate is higher in bacteria as compared to other microorganism. The aim of the current study was to isolate amylase producing bacteria from the soil samples collected from leachate contaminated soil and soil near hot water springs. The isolation was done by serial dilution and plating method. Total 30 bacterial colonies were isolated from the collected soil samples. All isolates were screened for amylolytic activity by starch agar plate method. Among 16 bacterial isolates, only 6 isolates showed the amylolytic activity. Out of these, two isolate was selected on the basis of maximum hydrolysis for further study for fermentation curve where one of the isolate gave peak production at 6 hours and showed peak amylase activity at 110 oC even in the absence of metal ions.