Abstract
Soil and water were explored to obtain bacterial isolates for the production of amino acids in fermentation medium containing molasses, supplemented with some salts in order to optimize the growth conditions. Nearly all the bacterial isolates produced alanine in the fermentation broth, while some of them also produced aspartic acid, valine and glutamic acid in traces. Nearly all the isolated bacteria produced alanine in the fermentation broth, while some of them also produced aspartic acid. Maximum alanine (4.90 g/I) was produced by an isolate NIAB B2784 after 72hr followed by 4.83 g/I (72 hr), 4.61 g/I (96 hr) by NIAB N-130 and 4.30 gil (96 hr) by NIAB S-15. Few bacterial isolates also produced lysine in the fermentation broth headed by NIAB SK-179 producing about one gram of lysine. All the isolates showed varying behavior regarding time scale production and pH. The study showed that there was a wide scope for bioconversion of sugar industrial waste, cane molasses, into value added products, like amino acids, through bacterial fermentation.
