Isolation, screening and identification of potential lipase producing bacteria from palm oil mill in Malaysia

Lipases are industrially important enzymes and are produced by a variety of microorganisms. However, there are few studies on the isolation of lipase producing bacteria from the local palm oil mill in Malaysia. The aim of this research was to isolate the potential lipase producer forms the palm oil mill and further identified using 16S rRNA identification. Thirty two potential lipase-producing bacterial strains were isolated from a palm oil mill in Malaysia. Medium containing tributyrin agar was employed for isolation studies. Based on the lypolytic halo, six strains, N-1,N-4, F-7,F-8,FR-9,F11, were selected for further studies. Standard Titrimetric Method was employed to identify the lipase activity of the bacterial strains. Rhodamine B agar plates was employed as the confirmation of the lipase activity. 16S rRNA analysis of the six cultures was carried out to identify the genus and species of the bacteria. Based on the two screening methods, the best lipase producer isolate was N-1, which identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, with similarity of 99%.