1,3&4Department of Biochemistry , G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.
2Department of Plant Physiology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.
Alkaline proteases have found a wide application in several industrial processes, such as laundry detergents, protein recovery or solubilization, prion degradation, meat tenderizations, in bating of hides and skins in leather industries. The conventional methods in leather processing involve the use of sulfide, lime and other chemicals, creating environmental pollution and safety hazards. Thus, for environmental reasons, the biotreament of leather using an enzymatic approach is preferable as it offers several advantages, e.g. easy control, speed and waste reduction, thus being ecofriendly. In present study, a bacterial isolate Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4, isolated from soil sample by spread plating method on nutrient agar (pH 8) at 60.0°C. The optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme isolated from Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 was found to be 10.0 and 80.0°C, respectively and retains 45% of its activity at 90°C for 3 hours. This isolate Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 shows good dehairing of hide within short incubation time, intact hair recovery and clean pelt.
Alkaline protease, Biotreatment, Dehairing, Thermoactinomyces, Baiting
