Isolation and Characterization of Proteolytic Enzyme Produced from Fungi

Protease is an enzyme that conducts proteolysis and receives high attention as the most important enzyme in many industries. The enzymes find applications in waste treatment, bioremediation processes, detergents, and the leather industry. However, the search for microbial sources of novel proteases in nature is a promising area of interest for researchers. In the present research work, protease-producing microorganisms were isolated from soil samples collected from two different locations in UNIZIK, from the surface and at depths of 15 cm. The isolated organisms were screened for their protease-generating abilities by using the skim milk agar experiment. The isolates that gave high positive results in screening were identified as Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. by analysing the colonies morphology and using the lacto-phenol cotton blue (LPCB) staining technique. Of these isolates, Aspergillus sp. that was isolated from the soil surface demonstrated the highest protease activity, as indicated by the clear zone around the colony that was incubated at room temperature for 96 hours. The results showed that among the isolates, two fungi had great potential to be used for the production of protease enzymes and upscaled for industrial production.