Agro-industrial wastes utilization for the generation of fibrinolytic metalloprotease by Serratia marcescens RSPB11

A previously isolated bacterial strain Serratia marcescens RSPB11, having the capacity to become an industrially important organism in thrombolytic therapy has been used for this study. Optimization of various fermentation process parameters for fibrinolytic alkaline metalloprotease production from mixed agro-industrial residues using statistical technique and Taguchi orthogonal array design under solid state fermentation (SSF) has been reported for the first time in this study. Before proceeding to Taguchi DOE, a one factor at a time approach has been employed for selection of suitable substrate and culture conditions. Five grams of mixed cake as sole nitrogen source containing green gram husk, groundnut oil cake, rice bran and wheat husk at 1.25 g each, moistened with 8.0 ml mineral salt solution followed by incubation with 3.0 ml inoculum at 30 °C, for 72 hours resulted in 25,385 ± 480 (U/g) serralysin. An overall yield of 148% increase in serralysin production was achieved by employing Taguchi design and one factor at a time approach when compared to control.