Singh et al.

the production of glucose and maltose via further hydrolysis (Gupta et al., 2003;

Prakash and Jaiswal 2009).

These enzymes are extensively employed in processed-food industry such as

baking, brewing, preparation of digestive aids, production of cakes, fruit juices and

starch syrups. Amylase has been employed in textile industries for long time for

desizing processes that involves the removal of starch from the fabric to prevent

breaking of the warp thread during the weaving process and in the pulp and paper

industry for the modification of starch of coated paper to make the surface of paper

sufficiently smooth and strong that improves the writing quality of the paper (Van

der Maarel et al., 2002; Gupta et al., 2003; Couto and Sanroman 2006).

α- Amylase has been derived from several fungi, yeasts and bacteria however

enzymesfromfungalandbacterialsourceshavedominatedapplicationsinindustrial

sectors. (Pandey et al., 2000; Konsoula et al., 2007). Thermostability of an enzyme

is a desired characteristic of most of the industries. Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus

stearothermophilus, Bacilluslicheniformis, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens are

known to be good producers of thermostable α-amylase that have been currently

investigated to improve industrial processes of starch degradation. (Gomes et al.,

2003; Stamford et al., 2001; Asgher et al., 2007). Several reports of production

have shown alpha amylase production from Bacillus sp. particularly Bacillus

amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis (Ashraf et al., 2005;

Rameshkumar and Sivasudha 2011; Garg and Kaur 2013).

Mostly synthetic media have been used for the production of bacterial amylase

through Smf. To meet the demand of industries, low-cost medium is required for

the production of α-amylase. For the reduction of the cost of the medium the

synthetic media could be replaced with cheaper agricultural by-products (Haq

et al., 1997; Haddaoui et al., 1999; Hamilton et al., 1999). The agro-substrates

such as sunflower meal, rice husk, cottonseed meal, soybean meal, and pearl

millet and rice bran have been tried for SSF that can be defined as the growth of

microorganisms on moist solid substrate with negligible free water (Nandakumar

et al., 1996; Haq et al., 2003; Pandey et al., 2001; Baysal et al., 2003; Kunamneni

et al., 2005; Verma et al., 2008). There are other advantages of SSF over SmF,

including superior productivity, simpler technique; lower capital and recurring

investment, lower energy requirement, lower level of catabolite repression, end

product inhibition, less water output, better product recovery and lack of foam

build up (Tanyildizi et al., 2005; Couto et al., 2006; Vishalakshi et al., 2009).

Enzymes production was carried out by solid state fermentation and it had been

established as a superior technique for the production of enzymes (El-Shishtawy

et al., 2014)

Different physical and chemical factors such as temperature, pH, period of

incubation, moisture and agitation, carbon sources acting as inducers, surfactants,

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International Journal of Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences : v.2 n.3&4. Dec. 2014