Asian Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology & Environmental Sciences Paper

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT IMMOBILIZATION TECHNIQUES ON ENZYME ACTIVITY

R.K. PATHAK, G. GLEN AND NITIN PEREIRA

Abstract

Immobilization, has emerged since last decade as a very powerful tool to improve almost all enzyme properties like stability, activity, specificity and selectivity, and reduction of inhibition. The immobilization may help to solve some of the problems of enzymes as industrial biocatalysts like enzyme recovery for reuse. In the present study 5 bacterial strains were isolated from alkaline soil collected from a beach. These cells were screened for protease activity. The initial activity of the cell was measured. The strain having high activity was selected for immobilization. The microorganisms were immobilized in various matrices, such as ca-alginate, polyacrylamide, agar-agar, and gelatin. The batch of 36 hrs was performed and the activity of the enzyme was measured for different matrices. The polyacrylamide showed the maximum enzyme activity. The batches were performed for 9 days to check the potential application and it was observed that the enzyme activity was high for first 6 days and later it started reducing.