1Industrial Biotechnology Lab. Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore-54590, Pakistan
2Department of Biotechnology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan.
* Corresponding author: qazi.zool@pu.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
Chitinase is most promising natural enzyme present in all life forms. It has various environmental, food, medical industrial and biotechnological applications. Twenty strains were isolated on chitinase producing medium (CPM) from soil samples collected from local termites’ influenced areas. Of all these, three isolates gave positive test for chitinase screened on the bases of clear zone on CPM following chitinase assay. The best chitinase producer was selected and identified as Bacillus subtilis employing 16S rRNA gene sequence identification technique. B. subtilis yielded highest chitinase on CPM at pH 7 with 3% inoculum size after incubating at 37 °C for 3 days. Plackett-Burman design was used for screening of medium components. The optimization of concentration of significantly impacted medium components for chitinase production was carried out using central composite design of response surface methodology. The maximum chitinase production was achieved employing 5% chitin, 0.5% rice straw, 0.05% peptone, 0.02% CaCl2, and 0.05% yeast extract. The utilization of agro-industrial waste (rice straw) not only decrease the production costs of microbial chitinase but can also providing positive way out for solving environmental pollution problem related to the waste.
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