Saba Hasan, Neelam Shukla, Kuldeep Srivastava, Abhinav Vashistha, Agnivesh Sharma, Shridhar Mishra, Mayank Pandey, Shivbrat Upadhyay, Anoop Tiwari, Supriya Gupta, Srishti Srivastava
Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Viraj Khand-5, Gomtinagar, Lucknow (U.P.)– 226010, India.
ABSTRACT
Soil fungi are microscopic plant-like cells, which enlarges, colonize the soil and produce water stable aggregates that link up as macro-aggregates to maximize the percolation of moisture and air into the root zones, improve soil structure and promotes subsurface plant growth. The amylase and protease enzyme work as a defense mechanism, protecting the plant from other insects by breaking down their cell walls. Many microbial enzymes are commercially exploited and successfully used on industrial scale to catalyze several chemical processes. These enzymes proved to be better, cheaper and environment friendly compared to use of chemicals. The aim of the present study was to screen isolates of soil fungi with reference to production of extracellular amylase and protease. To fulfill the mentioned objective, fertile and dry soil from different zones of Lucknow region was taken, serially diluted (10-1 to 10-3 ) and inoculated for 48 hrs on SDA media. Strains obtained were purified on SDA slants. 14 strains of fungus were obtained out of which 7 got purified and were named TS-01 to TS-07, respectively. Pure fungal strains were identified by microscopic analysis of structure. These strains were then inoculated for 48 hrs on minimal media containing starch and gelatin to test for amylase and protease production respectively. For amylase production strains were tested with iodine solution, and for protease production, with HgCl 2 solution. Strains TS-01, TS-02, TS-05, TS-06 & TS-07 gave positive results for both, amylase and protease production. Amylase production was highest in TS-01 with Enzymatic Index (EI) 2.53; while protease production was highest in TS-02 with Enzymatic Index (EI) of 4. Strains giving positive results for both were allowed to grow in broth for quantitative estimation of enzyme produced. It was concluded that TS-02 showed the best results in terms of production of amylase and protease. Read more…
