A comparative study of pectinolytic enzyme production by Bacillus species

Abstract

The economic and ecological function of pectinase enzymes in industries is gaining much attention with the need of highly productive strains of microorganisms to reduce production cost. The present investigation is a comparative evaluation of Bacillus sp. pectinases. The three isolates isolated from agro-waste, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis, showed very high pectinase activities with pectin as the substrate. The three isolates also showed varying degree of preference for banana peels and wheat bran but their activity towards orange peel was very low compared to other substrate. The effect of temperature on the pectinase of the three isolates showed that B. stearothermophilus had optimum temperature at 60°C while B. cereus and B. subtilis both showed optimum activity at 50°C. On the effect of pH, B. stearothermophilus, B. cereus and B. subtilis showed optimum pectinase activities at pH 7.5, 8.0 and 9.0, respectively. Metal ions enhanced the activity of pectinase produced by the three isolates. The study exhibited that B. stearothermophilus gave the most pectinase activity, optimum temperature and a moderate alkaline pH, possibly making it a better source for industrial purpose.

Pectinase Production by Bacillus and Paenibacillus sp. Isolated from Decomposing Wood Residues in the Lagos Lagoon

“…This correlates with the finding from a research that Zn +2 inhibited the pectinase activity of Aspergillus flavus MTCC7589 at 1.0 mmol/L concentration and Torimiro and Okonji (2013) that K + enhanced the pectinase activity of Bacillus cereus [14]. However, this is contrary to pectinase enzyme from Bacillus cereus, B. subtilis, and Bacillus stearothermophilus in which Mn+2 and Zn+2 ions were found to enhance its activity [15]. This suggests that the requirement of metal ions for the pectinase activity vary depending upon their sources.…”

Millet Cobs: A Source of Microbial Enzymes

“…This agrees with different documentations of Bayoumi et al, Geetha [75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]. Bacillus subtilis being a producer of pectinase agrees with the report of Mariam and Aruna that B. subtilis strain arium 1115 produced the highest quantity of extracellular pectinase out of the arrays of Bacillus spp assayed for [83] [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89]. pH could also be a factor for low pectinase production in which acidic pH values were observed during the degradation of the millet cobs.…”

Effect of Bacillus tequilensis SALBT crude extract with pectinase activity on demucilation of coffee beans and juice clarification

“…Pectinase production was found to be high at pH 7.5 in B. subtilis Btk27 . The optimum pH for pectinase production in B. stearothermophilus was observed as pH 7.5 . Bacillus species usually showed different optimum pH for the production of pectinases ranging from 7 to 9 in various studies.…”