Background and Aim:Recently, potential applications for the cold adapted microorganisms and microbial products including cold-active enzymes have been highlighted. Cold-activated hydrolytic enzymes have numerous potential applications in the detergent, food, textile and animal feed industry, but relatively little is known about the diversity of cold-activated bacteria producing these enzymes. Methods:In this study, we isolated psychrophilic and psychrotolerant bacteria from Oshtorankuh situated in the Zagros Mountains, located in Lorestan Province, and evaluated production of their extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. Strains were isolated from soil samples on different media including TSA, ANB, ANB-SE, Soil extract agar, R2A and ISPII and incubated in 4 and 20° C. In order to detect the production of extracellular enzymes, different enzymatic media were performed. Results:A total 430 bacterial strains were isolated that 99.5 % were identified as psychrotolerant or psychrophilic. The Gram-negative strains were more than Gram-positives. To determine of functional diversity, we evaluated production of hydrolytic enzymes including amylase, protease, gelatinase, lipase, urease, keratinase, cellulase, DNase and pectinase. %2.2 producing eight enzymes and %21.5 producing four enzymes showed the high and low rate of enzyme production, respectively. The highest enzyme production was associated to protease (%79.5), gelatinase (%71), lipase (%52.2) and keratinase (%51). Biodegradability of cellulose, pectin and urea was shown in 40, 30, and 34.7 percentages of strains, respectively.Conclusion:Identification and characterization of these strains able to degrade biopolymers open up the new horizons in biotechnology.

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