Isolation and Characterization of Protease Producing Strains Isolated from Termite Moth and Oily Soil from a Mechanic Workshop

Student: Ifechukwu Victor Njaka (Project, 2025)
Department of Microbiology
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli, Anambra State

Abstract

Proteases also known as proteinases or proteolytic enzyme, are a large group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins and polypeptide. Protease enzymes are ubiquitous in occurrence, being found in all living organisms and are essential for cell growth and differentiation. Protease enzyme can be produced from animal, plants and microbial sources. This study investigates the production of protease using microbial isolates from termite moth and oily sand samples. The aim of this study was to determine protease producing potentials of bacterial isolated from termite moth and oily sand. A ten-fold dilution was adopted in this study after which primary screening of bacterial isolates was made to screen alkaline protease producers, using 1% skim milk agar with 100ml of distilled water maintaining pH 9.0 using 0.1 N sodium hydroxide from this study. The result obtained showed that termite moth plate one and two had the highest colony count of 132 and 93 compared to oily sand which had a count of 97 and 66. These results from the colony count showed that termite moth has a more specific p. otential to promote the growth of bacteria that can produce protease enzyme because it has the highest colony count compared to oily soil

Keywords
protease termite count enzyme colony producing isolated enzymes growth microbial
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