Screening of spp. bacterial endophytes for protease production, and application in feather degradation and bio-detergent additive.

Research on proteases and secondary metabolites from endophytes is an area that requires attention from researchers. In this study, proteases from sp. strain MHSD16 and sp. strain MHSD17 endophytes were characterised, and their potential biotechnological applications were investigated. Optimum protease production was achieved when isolates were grown in media containing (g/L): glucose 10g, casein 5g, yeast extract 5g, KHPO 2g, NaCO 10g at pH 9. The crude protease extracts were active in alkaline environments, thus referred to as alkaline proteases with optimal pH of 10. Additionally, sp. strain MHSD 16 and sp. strain MHSD17 proteases were active at high temperatures, with optimum enzyme activity at 50 °C. Thermostability profiles of these proteases showed that the enzymes were highly stable between (40-60 °C), maintaining over 85 % stability after 120 min incubation at 60 °C. Furthermore, the enzymes were stable and compatible with various household and laundry detergents. In the presence of commercial laundry detergent, OMO® 68 % and 72 % activity was retained for sp. strain MHSD16 and sp. strain MHSD17, respectively, while 67 % and 68 % activity were retained in the presence of Sunlight®. The potential application for use in detergents was investigated through the removal of blood stains with the crude alkaline extracts displaying efficient stain removal abilities. Feather degradation was also investigated and sp. MHSD17 exhibited feather keratin degrading properties more effectively than sp. MHSD16.