Quantitative Screening of Some Wastewater Actinomycetes for Production of Industrial Enzymes

Enzymes play a key role in the hydrolysis and biotransformation of organics in wastewater treatment plants. The main objective of the present study was to screen some actinomycete strains isolated from the wastewater samples for production of some industrially important enzymes. In this regard, ten actinomycete strains were isolated from Beni-Suef wastewater treatment plant and screened for their amylolytic, cellulytic, lipolytic and proteolytic activities. The results showed that the wastewater actinomycetes have good capabilities for the production of the tested enzymes. It was found that all the ten actinomycete isolates gave moderate amylolytic and high proteolytic activities, while nine isolates gave weak cellulytic activities and seven isolates recorded very weak lipolytic activities. The production of proteases was very high comparing to the other tested enzymes.