Screening of Enzymes from Actinomycetes and Fungi isolated from Plastic Dumped Soil

Enzymes as catalysts play a major role in day to day lives by catalyzing major biochemical and metabolic interconversions. Microbes are chief source of enzymes and synthesize them for the production of secondary metabolites. These enzymes can be exploited to develop many novel functions. In this study, actinomycetes and fungi were isolated from plastic waste dumped soil. A total of 35 actinomycetes and 15 fungal species were isolated from first level screening. Among them 5 actinomycetes and 3 fungal strains that showed better growth were chosen for further enzyme screening and characterization studies. These strains were screened for four enzymes viz. cellulase, protease, xylanase and glucosidase production. Actinomycetes showed xylanase and cellulase producing ability. The fungal strain in addition to the production of xylanase, protease enzymes also showed cellulase production. One actinomycetes and fungal strain that showed multienzyme production were subjected to further biochemical and morphological characterization. From morphological observation, actinomycetes revealed a creamy white, long spored species with some producing a light yellow pigmentation. The fungal strains showed black spores at the centre with surrounding white filaments. The fungal strain was also confirmed by visualizing spores and hyphae under the microscope. The actinomycetes were subjected to various biochemical tests. The tests revealed the strain isolated was an actinomycete. In future, these fungi and actinomycete can be exploited to produce the enzymes in large scale which can be screened for their ability to degrade plastic.