Abstract
The mounted expansion of industrial enzymes in global market emphasizes the screening of natural resources. Thermotolerant actinomycetes have a remarkable enzymatic potential but till now natural resources due to the difficulties in isolation and maintenance of pure culture explored only up to a extend. For this purpose, samples were collected from various raw deposits. The isolation and screening by various methods i.e., Direct plate method, Dilution plate method and Warcup’s soil plate method are used to screen out enzymatically active thermotolerant actinomyctetes strains. Enzymatic potential of the isolates were examined by using multilevel screening. Ninety two thermotolerant actinomycetes strains were isolated from ten diverse habitats. Sediment samples were also characterized for physiochemical properties. On the basis of cultural and microscopic characteristics, the isolated genera were identified as strains of Thermopolyspora, Thermomonospora, Streptomyces, Thermoactinomyces and Pseudonocardia. The most dominant genus (55%) was Streptomyces while Pseudonocardia (6%) was lowest in occurrence. Out of the total isolates, 40 strains showed amylolytic potential while 14 strains were positive for production of amylase and xylanase simultaneously. The most suitable amylase and xylanase producing strain after tertiary screening was Streptomyces sp. MSC702. The maximum activity of amylase and xylanase were 234.54 IU/ml and 28.40 IU/ml, respectively using wheat straw as a substrate in submerged fermentation.
