Extracellular hydrolytic enzymes of halophilic bacteria isolated from a subterranean rock salt crystal

The current study describes the extracellular hydrolytic activities of halophilic bacteria isolated from subterranean rock salt. The estimated number of grown colonies was approximately 3000 per gram of a rock salt on the surface of the medium MH containing 10% NaCl. The investigated strains, randomly selected from the colonies observed on the plate, showed at least one of the tested extracellular hydrolytic activities and one strain hydrolized six out of seven tested substrates. Our investigations showed that hydrolytic activities for Tween 80 and casein are predominant among the isolated strains although the NaCl concentration varies up to 2M. The presence of combined hydrolytic activities in some isolated strains could be an advantage to use in some biotechnological applications in various fields of industry or agriculture. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study on the extracellular hydrolytic properties of halophilic microorganisms isolated from subterranean salt crystals at 206m.