Isolation and Characterisation of Thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis SUNGC2 as Producer of α-Amylase from Malaysian Hot Spring

Screening of new source of novel and industrially useful enzymes is a key research pursuit in enzyme biotechnology. The study aims to report the characteristics of novel thermophilic microorganisms isolated from Sungai Klah (SK) Hot Spring, Perak, Malaysia, that can produce α-amylase. The morphological and biochemical properties were examined for SUNGC2 sample. The isolate was further screened for amylase, followed by 16S rRNA and analytical profile index (API) test. This isolate was further subjected to pH optimisation for α-amylase production. It was found that SUNGC2 was an α-amylase producer and was identified as Bacillus licheniformis SUNGC2 with NCBI accession numbers MH062901. The enzyme was found to exhibit an optimum temperature of 50°C and a pH of 7.0. The relative activity of the enzyme was obtained based on the improvement of the culture conditions. The highest amount of amylase production was 24.65 U/mL at pH 7.0, consecutively the growth was also highest at pH 7.0 with a 9.45-fold increase in specific activity by ammonium phosphate precipitation of 80% (w/v). The results showed that the bacteria isolated from the hot spring are a significant source of thermophilic enzymes that are highly promising in biotechnology.