Partial Purification and Characterization of Protease Enzyme from Nomuraea Rileyi

Nomuraea rileyi (Farlow) Samson is an entomopathogenic fungus capable of producing a variety of enzymes including proteases and chitinases. Protease derived from microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, and yeast has established wide spread applications in fields such as in the food, detergent and other industries. This study investigates the strategy for partial purification and characterization of protease enzyme from Nomuraea rileyi. The fungus was primarily screened on skim milk agar plate and a clear zone of skim milk hydrolysis confirmed the protease production. The protease activity of 89 U/100 ml was observed in crude sample and then subjected to partial purification by ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by dialysis. The protease enzyme was partially purified to 3.64 fold with a yield of 3.5%. The partially purified protease exhibited optimum activity at pH 8.0 and temperature at 40oC. Proteases can be used for various commercial purposes such as detergent, waste treatment, leather industry for dehairing the animal skins and degradation of natural proteins. In the present study protease were tested upon blood stain and dye and was found to exhibit good detergent activity after 15 mins. INTRODUCTION: The entomopathogenic fungus Nomuraea rileyi (Farlow) Samson is capable of producing a variety of enzymes including proteases and chitinases. Proteases are enzymes that are often considered vital in facilitating the host infection process 1 . According to 2 , fungal proteases are believed to play an important role in cuticle penetration of insects. 3 reported that fungi have a wide variety of enzymes than bacteria and proteases are among the most important enzymes produced by fungi. The protease from the entomopathogenic fungi is believed to be an important pathogenic factor for the fungal attachment on cuticle of insects 4 .