Screening for Hydrolytic Enzyme Production by Thermophilic Microbes Isolated from Egyptian Hot Spring

Abstract

Extreme environments like thermal springs are of considerable value as a source of thermophilic microbes, enzymes and biotechnological substances. The hot spring of Ras-Sedr is one of the Egyptian hot springs which not discovered yet. This research was carried out to isolate and screen thermophilic microbes that have the capability to produce thermostable enzymes. The sources for microbial isolation were sediment and water samples, collected from Ras-Sedr's hot spring, Ras-Sedr, Egypt. Three different medium types were used for microbial isolation. The isolates obtained were subjected for enzymatical activity. Three different enzymes, cellulase, lipase and ά-amylase, were selected to be screened by isolated strains. For cellulase activity testing, carboxy methylcellulose (CMC) agar was used as growth medium whereas tributyrin agar medium was used for lipase enzyme, while, starch agar plates were used for amylase enzyme screening. Our results showed that sediment sample harbored higher count of microbes than the water sample. Similarly, ATCC medium recorded higher thermophilic microbial count compared to the other two media used. The isolates obtained also reported a positive activity for all enzymes tested. Therefore, these promising isolates could be a source for pharmaceuticals and industrial applications.

Screening and characterization of thermostable enzyme-producing bacteria from selected hot springs of Ethiopia

“…Furthermore, Yadav and co-workers ( 39 ) reported related results, in which the majority of the isolates (67%) were amylase producers, while 63% were cellulase producers, but the lipase-producing ability of the isolates was much lower (10%) than that in the current study. On the contrary, Walid Elkazzaz et al ( 40 ) encountered a high number of bacterial isolates with cellulase activity. According to their report, the majority (95%) of the isolates were cellulase producers.…”

Isolation and screening of thermophiles producing Lipase enzyme

“…0.1 mL of hot water spring sample was spread inoculated on Thermus agar (ATCC medium 697) (Sikdar et al, 2015;Elkazzaz et al, 2020) and then the plates were incubated at 50 o C for 24-48h. After incubation well isolated representative colonies were purified and preserved for further research work.…”

“…Thermophiles are those organisms which grow above 40 o C, having optimum growth temperatures between 50 to 55 o C. (Gleeson et al, 2013). Hot water spring is one of the special niches which harbours thermoduric and thermophilic organisms (Khaled et al, 2022;Elkazzaz et al, 2020). Recently, thermostable lipases are in great demand due to their ability to function at relatively high temperature, which aids in accelerating reaction rate, substrate solubility and also prevent contamination by mesophiles.…”