Isolation and characterization of chitinase from bacteria of Shrimp pond

The enzyme chitinase, produced by various bacteria in both terrestrial and marine environment is used for the degradation of chitin which possesses several industrial applications. The biological applications of these enzymes have been exploited in food and pharmaceutical industries. Chitin degrading bacteria which produced an extracellular chitinase was isolated from the shrimp pond sediment and identified as Vibrio alginolyticus. Chitinase activity for this strain was 0.08μg/ml/minute. The optimum pH and temperature for chitinase activity was 8 and 45oC respectively. The molecular mass of the chitinase identified was 62KDa.