Screening for extracellular hydrolytic enzymes production by different halophilic bacteria

At the present time, some industrial processes require enzymes able to act under extreme physicochemical and environmental conditions. Typical enzymes may be degraded when are acting under high temperature, extreme acidic or alkaline pH, high pressure, etc. Halophilic microorganisms have capacity to support high salt concentration in the medium, allowing live under high ionic strength, low aqueous activity, organic solvents, etc., and their enzymes also have these properties. This study describes the extracellular hydrolytic enzyme production of eight moderately halophilic bacteria, isolated from the semi-desert region of Coahuila Mexico. The evaluated enzymes were amylases, proteases, cellulases, xylanases, DNAases, pectinases, chitinases and lipases using culture media with 14% NaCl (w/v). Halo formation was the method used to detect the positive extracellular enzyme production. Most of the strains were able to produce amylases, cellulases, pectinases and xylanases. Where, xylanases were those with the greatest intensity halo formation, and may have potential to be used for bio-catalytic processes.