Production and Optimization Studies of Protease by Soil Isolate Actinomycetes Using Mixed Substrate of Pomegranate Peel Powder and Banana Peel Powder under Solid State Fermentation

The Actinomycetes are gram-positive, unicellular bacteria that grow in a typical filamentous manner on solid substrates and may synthesis a wide range of secondary metabolites, including enzymes. Proteases are universally present enzymes that catalyze hydrolytic processes that break down protein molecules into peptides and amino acids. The protease enzyme is used in food and detergent industries. The goal of the current investigation is to identify and isolate a prospective isolate of Actinomycetes capable of solid state fermentation for the protease enzyme production. The soil samples yielded a total of 30 isolates. On starch casein nutrition agar medium, B5 isolate was observed to be a potential strain for production of protease enzyme. The optimum conditions for the maximum protease enzyme production were observed to be at 30°C with a pH of 7 when incubated for 5 days with a 6th day old culture and 2mL of the inoculum volume for protease with substrate concentration (pomegranate and banana peel powder of each 2.5 g) of 5 g. The addition of Carbon source starch and Nitrogen source casein to the production medium has enhanced the enzyme activity to 442.8 U/gds.