Variation of Protease Production by the Bacteria (Bacillus fastidiosus) and the Fungus (Aspergillus funiculosus)

Protease enzymes perform the hydrolysis of proteins or large polypeptide chains into smaller peptides and amino acids, and thus facilitate their absorption by cells which is produced by different types of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, yeast and actinomycetes. Commercially they are very important in different industrial levels and products. The aim of this study was to isolate the protease producing bacteria and fungi and to optimize the media composition that supports the maximum protease production. In the present study the variation of protease production by the bacteria (Bacillus fastidiosus, Z8) and the fungi (Aspergillus funiculosus, Za) was observed by determining their optimum conditions e.g. incubation period, temperature, pH, substrate specificity and substrate concentration etc, where the results showed that the fungal isolate Za under study are good producers of protease than the bacterial isolate Z8 though it took longer incubation time (5 days) for crude enzyme production in the presence of fructose as carbon source at temperature 35°C with pH 6.0.Th is might be an indication that protease production can be variable amongst microbes to microbes.