Abstract

Phanerochaete chrysosporium is a well known organism which produces extracellular proteases. In this study, the two principal extracellular alkaline proteases produced by submerged batch cultures of P. chrysosporium were characterized by SDS-PAGE and zymography. The protease activity was observed from the third day of incubation consisted of two protein bands ranging in size of 33 and 40 KDa, respectively. The activity of these alkaline proteases in presence of casein substrate at pH 7.5 was found to be 86 units/ml. The cultures were grown in presence of basal media supplemented with selected agrowastes namely, peanut oil cake, cotton seed oil cake, almond oil cake, oat and corn flour. Among them, a combination of oat flour and peanut oil cake (10:1) showed maximum activity of 46 units/ml on 7^th day of incubation. The results obtained were remarkable characterizing specific alkaline proteases which can be explored for novel properties and industrial applications.

Key words: Phanerochaete chr