Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Potential Cellulolytic Bacillus Species Isolated From Soil Samples

Abstract

The twenty-two bacterial isolates were screened for cellulolytic activity using Congo red stain on Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) agar plates inoculated with the isolates. All the isolates were found to hydrolyze Carboxymethylcellulose. Five bacterial isolates (FAY88, FAY103, FAY117. FAY136 and FAY182) were selected according to their higher production of carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase). A Gram stain test was carried out to identify five isolates as Gram-positive rods, all associated mainly with members of the Bacillus. Their CMCase activities were 1.49, 1.26, 1.21, 1.21 and 1.24 U/ml, respectively. Genetic distances for the five selected strains with high cellulase activity based on the 79 bands obtained from the results of RAPD revealed the similarity according to the morphological characterization agrees with genetic distance. The SDS-PAGE analysis was revealed that, the molecular weight of crude cellulase isolated from Bacillus isolates was found approximately of 54 kDa.