Isolation, characterization and production of lipase producing bacterial strains from petrol spilled soil

Lipase is an industrially important enzyme and has a wide range of applications in dairy, food, detergent and pharmaceutical industries. Lipases are highly produced from microbes and specifically, bacterial lipases play a vital role in commercial importance. The present investigation deals with the production of lipase from petrol spilled soil sample. The sample was collected from petrol bunk situated in Coimbatore, followed by serial dilution and subsequently spread plated on nutrient agar plates. 8 colonies were selected and characterized based on morphological and biochemical test. The selected colonies were streaked on Tributyrin agar plates. From the 8 isolates, 5 bacterial isolates that showed clear zone after incubation were selected as lipase producing strain. Selected bacterial isolates were then optimized for maximum yield of enzyme under various parameters like carbon, nitrogen sources, pH and temperature on production media. Lipase production was increased with sucrose and lactose as a carbon source and yeast extract as a nitrogen source. Effect of pH and temperature indicated that, the lipase production was maximum in pH 6.0 and at 37°C.