Production and characterization of extracellular pectinase from a newly isolated Bacillus species from fruit waste soil

Abstract

The present investigation was carried for identification of pectinolytic bacteria and determination of their pectinolytic activity. The isolation was made from soil sample collected from fruit wastes. Screening of pectinolytic activity was achieved with pectin agar plate. Among 36 strains tested 12 shows pectinolytic activity. The potent isolate FWS II-4 was identified as Bacillus sp. and further used for enzyme production. Pectinase was produced by submerged fermentation and the purified. The purified enzyme demonstrated 3.40 mg/ml of total protein and 484.70 U/mg of specific activity. In characterization studies, the pectinase demonstrated good activity at pH 6.0 and 40 °C. Also, the bacterial strain showed maximum growth when the medium pH was 7.0 and incubated 37 °C.