Investigation of protease enzyme activities of entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana isolates

In this thesis, protease enzyme activities of entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana isolates were investigated. What makes Beauveria bassiana so important is that it has a wide variety of effective virulence factors and toxins. Phenotypic and genotypic determinations were performed and 31 Beauveria bassiana isolates were studied. All isolates were inoculated into Skim mil agar for protease enzyme pre-screening. Plating method was used to prevent contamination on skim milk agar. For this, stock cultures were prepared primarily in cryo tubes containing glycerol. After 5 days incubation period, colony and zone diameters of the isolates were measured. Fungal isolates were classified as high and low protease enzyme activity according to ICMC (Index of Relative Enzyme Activity) criteria for protease activity. Accordingly, 12 isolates were evaluated as having very high protease activity. 9 of the other isolates showed high activity and 10 of them showed moderate activity.