Isolation and Identification of Cellulolytic Bacteria from Wood Industry Soil in Kancheepuram, Chennai

Cellulose degradation is carried out by a large number of microorganisms with only a limited population of these organisms producing a substantial amount of cellulase capable of complete hydrolysis of cellulose; cellulolytic bacteria are one of the main cellulase-producing microorganisms. A total of 22 bacterial strains from 3 different wood industries in Chennai was isolated on agar plates containing carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as the substrate, two strains showed hydrolyzing zones after congo red staining and microscopic examination of the isolates revealed Gram-positive cocci exhibiting pink colored cells; using 16S rRNA sequence, phylogenetic analysis was performed with BLAST program to determine the evolutionary relationship and molecular identification indicated that 2 strains (ABTRI-1 and ABTRI-2) exhibit 99% similarities to Oceanobacillus profundus on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Identification of bacterial species capable of cellulose degradation is becoming an important aspect in the mass production of cellulase enzymes that have applications in textile industries, food industries as well as biomedical fields