Production and Characterization of a Halo-, Solvent-, Thermo-tolerant Alkaline Lipase by Staphylococcus arlettae JPBW-1, Isolated from Rock Salt Mine

Abstract

Studies on lipase production and characterization were carried out with a bacterial strain Staphylococcus arlettae JPBW-1 isolated from rock salt mine, Darang, HP, India. Higher lipase activity has been obtained using 10 % inoculum with 5 % of soybean oil as carbon source utilizing a pH 8.0 in 3 h at 35 °C and 100 rpm through submerged fermentation. Partially purified S. arlettae lipase has been found to be active over a broad range of temperature (30–90 °C), pH (7.0–12.0) and NaCl concentration (0–20 %). It has shown extreme stability with solvents such as benzene, xylene, n-hexane, methanol, ethanol and toluene up to 30 % (v/v). The lipase activity has been found to be inhibited by metal ions of K+, Co2+ and Fe2+ and stimulated by Mn2+, Ca2+ and Hg2+. Lipase activity has been diminished with denaturants, but enhanced effect has been observed with surfactants, such as Tween 80, Tween 40 and chelator EDTA. The Km and Vmax values were found to be 7.05 mM and 2.67 mmol/min, respectively. Thus, the lipase from S. arlettae may have considerable potential for industrial application from the perspectives of its tolerance towards industrial extreme conditions of pH, temperature, salt and solvent.