ABSTRACT
Globally lipases are the most attractive source of research, as it has numerous applications in various industries like food industry, paper and pulp industry, preparation of beverages etc. A lipase producing bacterium, Pseudomonas stutzeri, was isolated from sea water. The bacterial culture was introduced to the physical and chemical mutagens and then allowed to grow on the solid media. A number of mutated clones were produced which were further followed by examining their lipase activity. There was a significant increase in the extracellular lipase activity i.e. 13, 56 and 14 folds increase in the case of UV mutation, sodium azide, and NTG respectively. Further, the mutants were subcultured and stability was observed in NTG mutants. The lipase production from the NTG mutants was optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The maximum lipase activity of 1132.6 U/ml was obtained which was about 7 folds higher than the parent strain using the process which utilized the residual coconut cake, a byprtoduct of coconut oil industries and the sea water which makes the process sustainable.
