Isolation and Characterization of Thermophilic Bacteria from Geothermal Areas in Turkey and Preliminary Research on Biotechnologically Important Enzyme Production

Abstract

In this study, the isolation, identification and characterization of the thermophilic bacteria from different hot springs in Turkey were carried out by conventional (morphological, physiological and biochemical tests) and molecular methods (fatty acid methyl esters, GTG5-PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing). These thermophilic bacteria were then tested for their capability to produce enzymes such as lipase, protease, amylase and cellulase. O20 strain is a novel species according to identification studies. All of its isolates were capable of producing industrially valuable enzymes based on screening. In fact, most of them could produce at least two of these enzymes.