Screening of Protease-Producing Bacteria from Gastropods

Abstract

Microbial proteases are the most important group of indstrial enzymes such as food, detergent, phamaceutical, and waste management industries. Previously we reported that bacteria isolated 127 strains from six gastropods F. oregonenesis, N. cumingi, N. constricta, C. fulmen, V. emphaticus, JG in June to December 2010 were studied to find out the bacterial assemblages associated with local gastropod collected in Uljin, the East Sea. Protease-producing bacteria were isolated from gastropods. To screen for proteolytic activity. various agar medium supplementd with 0.5% skim milk were used. We found that 38 isolate strains showed proteolytic activity on skim milk agar plate. This study presents a first example which discovered microbial proteases from gastropods successfully.