A pectinase producing bacterium was isolated from spoilt apple and was identified as Bacillus subtilis strain arium 1115 on the basis of morphological, cultural, biochemical and 16S rRNA sequence analysis using NCBI assessment with accession number NCBI- LC224327.1. Maximum production of pectinase (28.44 U/ml) was obtained by the 8% (v/v) of 0.2 O.D at 540 nm of Bacillus subtilis strain arium 1115 inoculated in an optimized medium containing Pectin (0.25%), Yeast extract (1%), Xylose (1.5%), pH 9 incubated on a shaker (120 rpm) at 45°C for 72 hrs. Maximum pectinase activity was observed at 45°C and pH 7.The residual enzyme activity in the presence of metal ions such as Mg²+ (76.9%), Na+ (34.8%), Cu²+ (30.5%), Mn²+ (26.4%), Ca²+ (25.8%), Ba²+ (22.9%), Zn²+ (21.4%), Fe²+ (16.6%), Ni²+ (14.1%), Li²+ (9.3%), Cd²+ (8.7%) and Hg²+ (5.5%) was reported. The residual enzyme activity in the presence of inhibitors such as Tween 80 (20.8%), βMercaptoethanol (20.1%), EDTA (15.5%) and SDS (6.2%) was also studied. The potential application of pectinase as a clarifying agent was demonstrated.
