What an interesting topic. Well, that was my final year project in my undergraduate days. I will be sharing it with you bit by bit.
This is part of the introduction section of the project. I look to introduce what the project is all about by looking at Moringa Oleifera, Amylase, Protease and so on. This part is talking about what protease and the rhizosphere then the specimen I am looking at which is Moringa Oleifera. Remember I am screening fungi from the rhizosphere of Moringa Oleifera. So, I need to explain what they are all about.
Protease
Protease (also called peptidase or proteinase) is any enzyme that performs proteolysis, that is, begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein. Proteases have evolved multiple times, and different classes of protease can perform the same reaction by completely different catalytic mechanisms. Proteases are involved in digesting long protein chains into shorter fragments by splitting the peptide bonds that link amino acids residues. Proteases are widespread in nature, microbes serve as a preferred source of these enzymes because of their rapid growth, the limited space required for their cultivation and the ease with which they can be genetically manipulated to generate new enzymes with altered properties that are desirable for their various applications (Anwar and Saleemuddin, 1997).
Rhizosphere
Plant roots receive between 30 to 60% of the net photosynthesized carbon. Of this, an estimated 40 to 90% enters the soil as a wide variety of materials, including alcohols, ethylene, sugars, amino and organic acids, vitamins, nucleotides, polysaccharides, and enzymes (Alva et al., 2007). These materials create a unique environment for soil microorganisms called the rhizosphere. Therefore, rhizosphere is an environment with a high microbial diversity.
Moringa oleifera
Moringa oleifera is the most widely cultivated species of the Moringa, which is the only genus in the family Moringaceae. English common names include Moringa, drumstick tree. Yoruba names include Ewe ile, Ewe Igbale, Hausa names include Barambo, Bagaruwar maka, Ibo names include Odudu oyibo, Okwe olu.
The tree ranges in height from 5-12m with an open, umbrella shaped crown straight trunk(10-30cm thick) with corky, whitish bark.
Moringa is propagated sexually through seeds and vegetatively through stem cuttings (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera).