Isolation of halotolerant and halophilic bacteria and screening of their poly enzyme potential

Abstract

A water sample was collected from a high tide influenced zone of water logged area near a coastal region of Bhavnagar. Total twenty eight different isolates were obtained. Except four isolates, all were able to grow on Zobell marine agar medium with 5% NaCl. Dominance of orange pigment was found at > 20% salt concentration and yellow pigment at 10% NaCl. Among the isolates, bacilli were found dominant. Isolates were checked for the production of amylase, protease, cellulase, lipase and chitinase in the presence of 5% salt concentration. Cellulase producing isolates were more compared to amylase and protease producers and only one isolate produced chitinase. Isolate 27 was the only isolate found to have polyenzyme production potential and was growing up to 15% NaCl concentration. This isolate showed 98% similarity with Bacillus licheniformis strain ESR26 and was identified as Bacillus licheniformis LRK1 (GenBank accession number KF534782) on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis.