Optimization of Metalloprotease Enzyme Extracted from Marine B.thuringiensis Strain 1257 Metabolism

Marine water contains large numbers of different species of microorganisms particularly, bacteria, which is considered to be a biological factory for producing protease enzymes that offer great biotechnological, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. At this work we isolated a hyper protease producer bacterium B.thuringiensis strain 1257 from the Mediterranean Sea water and a purified protease from strain 1257. The protease was identified as metalloprotease. Metalloprotease was partially purified by ammonium sulfate followed by application on Sephadex G-75 column. Gel filtration step resulted in more than 40 times fold purification of the purified enzyme. The enzyme activity was inhibited by EDTA (almost 80%) at 15 mM concentration. Optimum temperature for enzyme activity was 60 ?C. It also exhibited a broad pH activity range (6-9) with an optimum pH of 8.