RESUMO
Proteases are ubiquitously present and are among the largest groups of commercially important enzymes. Here, we investigated a wood-rot basidiomycete Trametes versicolor (L.) Lloyd [Syn. Coriolus versicolor (L.) Quél.; Polyporus versicolor (L.) Fr.] as a source of the enzyme serine protease, its production, and optimized to obtain a higher yield of the enzyme.. The significant variables with optimized values for maximum production of the enzyme were temperature (30?C), incubation time (120 h) and wheat bran (10 g). The yield increased by 30.76% by statistically optimizing the media. The optimized temperature and pH for the maximum protease activity was 50?C and pH 7.0, respectively. The enzyme was purified through ion exchange (using DEAE cellulose 52 resin) and gel filtration chromatography (using Superdex 200 column). The purified enzyme had a retention time of 7 min in RP-HPLC. The enzyme was stable at a broad range of temperature (30-60?C) and pH (5.0-8.0) with a half-life of 58.72 min, Vmax of 37.17 ?M min/mL and Km of 0.657 mg/mL. Its activity was enhanced by Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+ ions and SDS surfactant. These properties make this enzyme a valuable candidate for industrial applications