Protease producing pseudomonas aeruginosa strain (IBC-2) from coal mines of Orakzai agency, Pakistan

Abstract

Microbial proteolytic enzymes are used to hydrolyze proteins in various bio-industrial applications but most of the enzymes are not active in extreme temperature conditions, pH and salt concentrations. This increases the demand to explore enzymes to show activity at such extreme environments. Exciting findings have been described about the extremophilic bacteria isolated first time from coal mines of Orakzai Agency, Pakistan, having protease producing properties. Among various extracted isolates, ~6 isolates were purified based on showing proteolytic activity using 2% skim milk agar media at 37 °C for 24 hrs, to identify various morphological and biochemical characteristics. The isolate, IBC-2 showed maximum zonal activity (21 mm) and was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (JCM 5962) using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The strain IBC-2 exhibited significantly (P = 0.05) maximum growth and protease production (335 U/ml) at 37 °C and at pH 7 after 24 hrs of incubation. The strain was also significantly (P = 0.05) more active for protease production at neutral pH (435 U/ml) than at high or low pH, reflected neutral nature of the bacteria. In conclusion, the strain IBC-2 has highest protease producing ability with distinctiveness, which can be used for wide range bio-industrial applications.