Bacteria from Coral Ecosystem of Kiltan Island, Lakshadweep: Resource for Hydrolytic Enzymes

Abstract

Gelatinase, Protease, Amylase and Lipase are the important enzymes which are widely used in Chemical, medical, food industries and basic biological science. Enzymes reported till date is produced mostly by microorganisms of terrestrial origin. However, only a few number of reports reported from marine producers, their capability have not been explored in details. More over an enzyme from the marine origin may be an inimitable protein molecule not found in any terrestrial organism or it may be a known enzyme from a terrestrial source but with novel properties. Coral reefs are highly productive natural ecosystem and provide an excellent habitat for a vast array of marine organisms due to their structure, efficient biological recycling and high retention of nutrients. Considering all these, the present study made an attempt to screen the potential gelatinase, protease, amylase and lipase producing bacteria from coral ecosystem of Kiltan Island of Lakshadweep. Depending on the diameter of zone production in the respective substrate containing medium, two bacterial strains was selected for further studies. The isolated bacterium has showed varying enzymatic activity in different temperature and pH. The biochemical analysis and 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed that, the isolated bacteria closely related to B. fluxes and B. cereus.