Proteins in local thermophilic bacterial isolates

Abstract

Thermophilic bacteria are economically important source of a large variety of novel bioactive components of biotechnological importance in agriculture, mining, nanotechnology, chemical and industrial fields at elevated temperatures. Thermozymes are the most important bioactive products produced by thermophilic microorganisms. In this study, soil samples were collected from Pharaoh bath, South Sinai, Egypt. The temperature and pH of the sample sites were 60 - 69°C and 6.7 - 6.9, respectively. A total of 57 bacterial isolates were recovered from the soil samples. The isolates were characterized phenotypically based on cultural characteristics and Gram staining. All isolates were Gram positive, rods, endospore former, off white color and the size of colonies varied from pinpoint to large colonies. According to the optimum temperature of growth of the isolates, 45 bacterial isolates (79%) were moderate thermophiles and 12 bacterial isolates (21%) were extreme thermophiles, 46% of the isolates were optimally grown at 55°C, 33% were optimally grown at 60°C, 12% were optimally grown at 65°C and 9% were optimally grown at 70°C.