Partial characterization and optimization of production of extracellular alpha-amylase from Bacillus subtilis isolated from culturable cow dung microflora.

Studies of alpha-amylase production by Bacillus subtilis (CM3) isolated earlier from cow dung microflora, were carried out. The optimum temperature, pH and incubation period for amylase production were 50-70 degrees C, 5.0-9.0 and 36 h, respectively. Enzyme secretion was very similar in the presence of any of the carbon sources tested (soluble starch, potato starch, cassava starch, wheat flour, glucose, fructose, etc.). Yeast extract and ammonium acetate (1%) as nitrogen sources gave higher yield compared to other nitrogen sources (peptone, malt extract, casein, asparagine, glycine, beef extract), whereas ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphate and urea inhibited the enzyme activity. Addition of Ca+2 (10-40 mM) to the culture medium did not result in further improvement of enzyme production, whereas the addition of surfactants (Tween 20, Tween 40, Tween 80, and sodium lauryl sulphate) at 0.02% resulted in 2-15% increase in enzyme production. There were no significant variations in enzyme yield between shaked-flask and laboratory fermentor cultures. The purified enzyme is in two forms with molecular mass of 18.0 +/- 1 and 43.0 +/- 1 kDa in native SDS-PAGE.