ISSN 2394-9716 International Journal of Novel Research in Interdisciplinary Studies Vol. 4, Issue 5, pp: (9-16), Month: September - October 2017, Available at: www.noveltyjournals.com Page | 9 Novelty Journals Isolation and Characterization of Thermostable Amylase Producing Bacteria from Hot Spring at Arba Minch Nech Sar National Park, Southern Ethiopia Alemayehu Letebo Albejo 1 , Temam Abrar Hamza 2 1,2 Department of Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Arba Minch University Author’s Email Address: 1 alemluv2001@yahoo.com, 2 temam2abrar2@gmail.com Abstract: Microorganisms can carry out extremely useful processes under extreme environmental condition and they are the best preferable sources of thermostable enzymes like amylase compared to plant and animal . Thermostable amylases are the most important enzymes in present with potential industrial applications such as detergent, food, pharmaceutical, paper, beverage, textile and fine-chemical industries. The application of enzyme increases more with the discovery of thermostable enzymes because thermophilic process is more stable, faster, needs lower costs. This work aimed to isolate thermostable amylase producing bacteria from hot spring found in Arba Minch Nech Sar national park for use as flour fermentation in bakery industry. Isolation of amylase producer was undertaken using starch containing nutrient agar medium. A total of 72 thermophilic bacteria were isolated from the study area. Out of 72, ten amylase positive isolates were screened on the basis of clear zone formation and from these, four potential isolates (isolate 1-4) were selected based on thermo tolerance ability. All four isolates were found to be positive for Gram reaction, citrate utilization, methyl red, catalase tests; and rod shaped morphology. However, they found to be negative for VP test. The crude enzyme from all potential isolates (isolate-1 -4) were rise 20gm of wheat flour dough from 1cm to maximum of 4.7cm after 22hrs incubation with 3ml crude enzyme. These properties suggest that thermostable amylase enzyme produced in this study could find potential application in bread making process and replace conventional yeast technology which have an economic implication. Keywords: Thermostable Amylase, Thermophilic, Hot Spring, Isolate, Bacteria. 1. INTRODUCTION The microbial world is the largest unexplored reservoir of biodiversity on the earth planets [1]. Extremophiles are microorganism that survive at extreme environmental condition [2]. Among this thermophiles covers the larger portion that show optimum growth at temperatures of 50°C or higher. Hot springs are characterized by moderate to high temperature environment [3, 4] which is best source of industrially important thermophiles like Thermus aquatics. However, microbial diversity of this hot spring has not yet been fully explored due to difficulties in isolation, maintenance of pure culture and thus, their diversity and biotechnological potential remains to unexplored [5, 6]. The cellular components of thermophiles are extremely thermostable and these together with their unique metabolic capabilities, offer considerable promise for biotechnological applications.