Uv induced mutagenesis elevates the production of laccase in enterobacter cloacae

Abstract

The increasing commercial significance of microbial laccase in various fields compels the supply of enzymes in large quantities at an affordable price. Laccase has been produced by a wide variety of wild cultures of bacteria and fungi, the high yielding strains are always desired to meet the increasing demand of laccase. Although various approaches have been proposed for improving the yield of laccase, UV mutagenesis is known as the best method of improving the strains for better yield of microbial metabolites. However, the reports on the use of UV light in strain improvement for laccase production by the use of Enterobacter sp. are scarce and need to be explored fully. For this purpose present study was aimed to improve the laccase production in Enterobacter cloacae through UV mutagenesis. We report enhanced production of laccase in a high yielding strain of E. cloacae isolated from the soap industry waste. UV mutagenesis of a wild strain of E. cloacae resulted in 3.09 folds further improvement in the production. Optimum laccase synthesis was reported at 26 h, of incubation at 30 degrees C under neutral pH (7.0) conditions. This high yielding mutant strain will have great industrial significance for laccase production.