Abstract
In the present study, metagenomic library of Western Ghats soil sample was constructed in a fosmid vector (pCC1FOS) and screened for biocatalytic properties. The clones showed amylolytic activity on Luria-Bertani starch agar plates and one of them was studied in detail. The enzyme exhibited stability at elevated temperature with 60°C being the optimal temperature. The enzyme retained more than 30% activity after 60 min incubation at 80°C. It also showed more than 70% activity retention in 1.5 M NaCl solution. The pH optimum of the enzyme was at pH = 5.0. The enzyme possesses good activity in the presence of chelating and strong reducing agents with activity enhancements or retention being observed at 5 mM β-mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol and N-bromosuccinimide. However, almost complete loss of activity was observed with 5 mM EDTA, while activity enhancement was observed upon incubation with Ca2+ suggesting it to be a Ca2+-dependent α-amylase, which was further confirmed by a thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The TLC run revealed that digestion pattern was similar to commercial α-amylase. The 16S rRNA gene sequence (GenBank accession number HQ680979) BLAST showed 95% similarities with Exiguobacterium sp. AFB-11 and AFB 18, with query sequence coverage of 99%.
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Abbreviations
- CFU:
-
colony forming unit
- DTT:
-
dithiothreitol
- LB:
-
Luria-Bertani
- NBS:
-
N-bromosuccinimide
- TLC:
-
thin layer chromatography
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Vidya, J., Swaroop, S., Singh, S.K. et al. Isolation and characterization of a novel α-amylase from a metagenomic library of Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Biologia 66, 939–944 (2011). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0126-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0126-y