Halotolerant, acid-alkali stable, chelator resistant and raw starch digesting α-amylase from a marine bacterium Bacillus subtilis S8-18.

A halotolerant α-amylase having the ability of digesting the insoluble raw starches was characterized from Bacillus subtilis S8-18, a marine sediment isolate from Palk Bay region. The electrophoresis techniques unveiled that the α-amylase was indeed a monomer with a molecular weight of 57 kDa. The optimum temperature and pH for the enzyme activity were 60 °C and 6.0 respectively. The enzyme was highly stable for 24 h over a wide range of pH from 4.0 to 12.0 by showing 84-94% activity. Interestingly, by retaining 72% activity even after 24 h, the enzyme also showed tolerance towards 28% NaCl. The α-amylase retained a minimum of 93% residual activity in 1 mM concentration for the selected divalent metal ions. The enzyme was found to be chelator resistant as it remained unaffected by 1 mM of EDTA and exhibited 96% activity even at 5 mM concentration. Furthermore, though 1% SDS caused remarkable reduction (68%) in amylase activity, the enzyme showed tolerance towards other detergents (1% of Triton-X and Tween 80) with 85% activity. Additionally, the α-amylase enzyme is capable of hydrolyzing the insoluble raw starch substrates which was evident from the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and spectrophotometric analyses.