Isolation and Screening of Protease Enzyme Producing Bacteria from Cheese at Dilla University, Ethiopia

Enzymes are biological catalysts that facilitate the conversion of substrates into products by providing favorable conditions that lower the activation energy of the reaction. An enzyme may be a protein or a glycoprotein and consists of at least one polypeptide moiety. Proteases are the most important industrial enzymes and comprise about 25% of commercial enzymes in the world. Two third of the industrially produced proteases are from microbial sources. The current study was focused on the screening of protease enzyme producing bacteria from dairy product of cheese at Dilla University. Cheese sample was collected from Dilla town market. The proteases enzyme production bacteria were screened on milk agar plate through spread plate method. As the result, certain bacteria were screened for protease enzyme production as well as were confirmed on milk agar medium. Almost all isolated (35 isolate) of bacteria from cheese food stuff were had a potential in the production of protease enzyme which help for various activities. Therefore, all isolate had a promising potential for production proteolytic enzyme which are used in industries and the other sectors.