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Bacillus Swezeyi B2 Strain: A Novel Alkaliphilic Bacterium Producer of Alkaline-, Thermal, Oxidant-, and Surfactant-Stable Protease, Extremely Efficient in Detergency

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Abstract

Proteolytic enzymes that are currently used to meet industrial demand are usually derived from Bacillus species. They find multiple technical applications, particularly they have been increasingly used as a key bio-additive in detergents. In this study, a novel alkalophilic bacterium was isolated from contaminated soil, exhibiting 1400 U/ml proteolytic activity, and identified as Bacillus swezeyi B2. The crude enzyme likely contained a single extracellular protease. This enzyme revealed optimum activity at pH 10 and 70 °C and was highly alkaline thermostable (7–12.5) and up to 70 °C. The protease activity was completely inhibited by Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) suggesting that it belongs to the serine protease group. It was highly stable in the presence of the strong anionic surfactant (SDS) and oxidizing agents (H2O2). The supernatant was lyophilized and showed high storage stability retaining 100% of its original activity after one year of conservation at 4 °C. The lyophilized product was evaluated for its detergent efficacy, it revealed excellent compatibility with various laundry detergents keeping its full original activity after incubation for 1 h with seven solid and liquid commercial detergents and it effectively removed chocolate stains at low washing temperature (40 °C) and low supplementation level (125 U/ml). The features of this single alkaline and thermotolerant protease, stable toward surfactants, oxidizing agents, and commercial detergents with stain removal efficacy support its ideal choice for supplementation in detergent formulations.

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Data Availability

The 16S rRNA gene sequence is available in the GenBank database. The accession number is OP363244.

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Funding

This research work was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Enzyme Engineering and Microbiology Laboratory, National Engineering School of Sfax–University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Marwa Elhamdi & Noomen Hmidet

  2. Biology Department, College of Science and Arts at Khulis, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Sofiane Ghorbel

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  1. Marwa Elhamdi
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Performance of experiments, writing of original draft: ME; Supervision and manuscript review: NH and SG; Data analysis: ME, NH, and SG. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Noomen Hmidet.

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Elhamdi, M., Ghorbel, S. & Hmidet, N. Bacillus Swezeyi B2 Strain: A Novel Alkaliphilic Bacterium Producer of Alkaline-, Thermal, Oxidant-, and Surfactant-Stable Protease, Extremely Efficient in Detergency. Curr Microbiol 80, 95 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-03156-1

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