Research Article
Isolation and Characterization of Extracellular L-Asparaginase Producing Bacillus Species from Morinda citrifolia Phyllosphere
Meghana NK, Navya MN, Harsha K and R. Aswati Nair*
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Central University of Kerala (CUK), India
*Corresponding author: Nair AR, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Central University of Kerala (CUK), Kasaragod, Kerala- 671 320, India, Telephone: +91 467 2309343, Fax Number: +91 467 2232402; E-mail: aswati@cukerala.ac.in
Copyright: © Meghana NK, et al. 2020. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Information: Submission: 05/11/2020; Accepted: 11/12/2020; Published: 14/12/2020
Abstract
Bacterial isolates were identified from phyllosphere of the medicinal plant, Morinda citrifolia, a source for the anti-neoplastic L-Asparaginase used as
a chemotherapy drug in lymphoblastic leukaemia. Amongst the isolates with significant anti-oxidant activities, seven were identified as L-Asparaginase
producers. Quantitative estimation of L-Asparaginase activity by the seven phyllospheric isolates revealed maximal specific activity for isolates designated,
McTTL3 (2.98 U. μg-1 protein) and McTUF8 (2.94 U.μg-1 protein). Molecular characterization of the selected phyllospheric isolates using 16S rDNA identified
isolate McTUF8 to Bacillus subtilis strain BcX1 (97.19% identity) and McTTL3 to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum strain Hk3-1 X030 (99.26%
identity). Further precipitation of L-Asparaginase from McTTL3 using [(NH4)2SO4] (20- 80% w/v) yielded 100-fold increase in specific activity (331.55 U.μg-
1 protein) at 20% saturation. The phyllospheric isolate designated McTTL3 identified in present study thus constitutes a potent source for commercial
production of the anti-neoplastic L-Asparaginase.