276EXTRACTION AND PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PROTEASE PRODUCING BACTERIA THAT SHOWING SIGNIFICANT DEHAIRING CAPABILITIESRemarkable dehairing capable protease producing bacterium was isolated from the local soil samples. Gram staining & spore staining showed that the organism is gram positive and forms spore during adverse condition in the growth medium. After various tests it was suggested and the features agreed with the description of Bacillus subtilis in Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. It was also characterized and identified by using a bioinformatics tool PIB (Probabilistic Identification of Bacteria) that suggests the organism was B. subtilis (ID=0.9760). In growth curve determination showed that the growth of the organism is increased with the increase of incubation period and the growth reached maximum at around 24 hours of incubation and the protease activity was the maximum of the 26 hours culture. Its optimum pH and temperature were 8.5 and 60°C. The enzyme hydrolyses a number of proteins including azocasein which suggests that it is an extracellular protease. Quantitative estimation has shown that 40mL of culture supernatant could dehair 2×1 cm of leather completely in 9 hours. In future the tanneries will use a combination of chemical and enzymatic processes. The potential for use of microbial enzymes in leather processing lies mainly in areas in which pollution-causing chemicals are being used.dipubt03@gmail.comResearch582015Protease,Identification,Characterization,Leather dehairing Bacteria,Isolation,ExtractionMd. Ekhlas Uddin,Mustafizur Rahman,Hossain Md.Faruquee,Md. Firoz Alam,S. M. Jaman,Md. Naqib Uddin,Tanvir AhammedDept. of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh., Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh.,Dept. of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh., Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Jahangirnagar University, Savar Dhaka, Bangladesh.,Dept. of Microbiology, Chittagong University, Chittagong, Bangladesh.,Dept. of Microbiology and Hygiene, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.