10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 4 Issue 2 2013 (April - June) The lipase producing bacteria were screened from the soil both qualitatively by Tween 80, rhodamine B agar assays and quantitatively by titrimetry with the objective of finding a bacterial strain capable of producing an alkaline lipase. The higher lipolytic activity of 17.43 U/ml was recorded for the isolate L13. Traditional methods viz. morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics were carried out to identify the most potent bacterial producer of an alkaline lipase. The isolate L13 was identified as lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus flexus lessThan /i greaterThan . Based on nucleotides homology and phylogenetic analysis, the isolate displayed 99% sequence similarity to lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus flexus lessThan /i greaterThan and was named lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus flexus lessThan /i greaterThan strain XJU-1(GenBank Accession Number: DQ837542.1). The screened lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus flexus lessThan /i greaterThan from the present study can be exploited for the industrial production of an alkaline lipase that can be used in detergent and leather industries since the isolate is producing higher amounts of enzyme under alkaline conditions. FRANCOIS N. NIYONZIMA AND SUNIL S. MORE Olive oil, tween 80, rhodamine B, alkaline lipase, Bacillus flexus strain XJU-1 1037-1045