STRAIN IMPROVEMENT OF ALKALINE PROTEASE FROM TRICHODERMA REESEI MTCC-3929 BY PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL MUTAGEN

The purpose of the present investigation is to enhance alkaline protease production by subjecting indigenous protease producing strain Trichoderma reesei MTCC-3929 to improvement by random mutagenesis by ultra-violet (UV) irradiation and N-Methyl-N’-nitro-N-nitroso guanidine (NTG) treatment. Mutants were screened as protease producers on the basis of zone of clearance on skimmed milk agar plates. UV-8 mutant showed 9 mm clear zone diameter and activities of 199.6 and 552.6 U/ml for submerged fermentation (Smf) and solid state fermentation (SSF), respectively. UV-8 further mutated by NTG to produced NTG-17 mutant with zone of clearance 13mm diameter. Compared to wild strain, NTG-17 mutant was found to produce 2.6 and 2.2-fold more activities in SmF and SSF, respectively. Thus these findings have more impact on enzyme economy for biotechnological applications of microbial proteases.