African Journal of Botany

ISSN 2756-3294

African Journal of Botany ISSN: 3519-3824 Vol. 8 (1), pp. 001-006, January, 2020. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Isolation and screening of protease producing thermophilic Bacillus strains from different soil types of Pakistan

Pir Bux Ghumro*, Maryam Shafique, Muhammad Ishtiaq Ali, Imran Javed, Bashir Ahmad , Asif Jamal, Naeem Ali and Abdul Hameed

Department of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.

Accepted 11 June, 2019

Abstract

Thermophilic bacteria produce commercially useful proteases, active at high temperature. Due to growing demand of proteases application in different industries, the present study was designed to isolate protease producing Bacillus strains. Nine strains were isolated from three different ecological sources and qualitatively screened on skim milk agar. The Bacillus strain PB1 showed 5.4 cm zone of hydrolysis. The screened protease producing strain was further identified on the basis of morphological, biochemical (API 20 and API 50 CHB) and 16 s rRNA molecular identification as Bacillus licheniformis PB1 (Accession EU650317).

Key words: Thermophilic bacteria, proteases, 16S rRNA.