Production, Partial Purification and Characterization of Extracellular, Alkalophilic, Carboxy Methyl Cellulase from Baccillus Megaterium

A total of five bacterial strains were isolated from soil samples of Selakui area of Dehradun, India, and were subjected to screening for their carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) hydrolysis activity. Results revealed that, MJSH 1205 have maximum exocellulase activity and after fermentation at temperature 27°c, pH 7 and 1.5 % CMC concentration and 0.5% of urea as nitrogen source, bacterial strain MJSH-1205 showed the highest CMC hydrolysis activity of 0.01038 ±0.000504 U/ml/min. The enzyme produced is stable at varied range of temperature and pH, but the optimum temperature and pH was found to be 30°C temperature pH 9 respectively. This alkalophilic property of enzyme makes it industrially important. Presence of Mg ions enhance the activity of enzyme while reduction in the activity of enzyme was found in the presence of SDS.