Production and partial characterization of cholesterol oxidase from micrococcus sp .isolated from Goa, India.

Seven bacterial strains that expressed inducible extracellular cholesterol oxidase (COD) were isolated from soil samples of Goa, India. One of the bacterial strains, Micrococcus sp. was found to produce the highest level of cholesterol oxidase (3.68 U /ml). The optimum pH for COD was found to be 7.0 and it was stable for at least 30 min at pH 7.0 by exhibiting more than 75% of the initial activity. The optimum temperature was found to be 50°C and the enzyme retained more than 70% of the initial activity after 60 min of heat treatment at 50°C. This appears to be the first report on the production of COD by Micrococcus sp. isolated from Goa, India.