Background: Streptomyces
sp. DPUA 1576 from Amazon lichens was studied to protease and fibrinolytic
production. A 2
2 factorial experimental design was applied to optimize its protease enzyme production using
two independent variables, namely soybean flour and glucose concentrations.
Results: The optimal conditions to obtain high protease production (83.42 U/mL) were 1.26% soybean flour and
1.23% glucose concentration. A polynomial model was fitted to correlate the relationship between the two
variables and protease activity. In relation to fibrinolytic activity, the highest activity of 706.5 mm
2 was
obtained at 1.7% soybean flour and 1.0% glucose concentration, which was 33% higher than plasmin.
Fibrinolytic production was not optimized in the studied conditions.
Conclusions: These results show that the optimization of the culture medium can enhance protease production,
thus becoming a good process for further research. In addition,
Streptomyces sp. DPUA 1576, isolated from
Amazon lichens, might be a potential strain for fibrinolytic protease production.