Research Article
Jaya Philip, Tanuja T and Bedi
Abstract
The present study aims at isolation and characterisation of cellulose degrading bacterial and fungal strains from fruit and vegetable decaying waste such a banana peel, sugarcane bagasse, coconut coir, citrus wastes, potato peel, sponge guard, cucumber peel. 23 bacterial colonies and 12 fungal colonies were obtained on Nutrient Agar and PDA respectively by plating the aliquots of fivefold serially diluted decaying samples. 7 bacterial strains and 4 fungal strains were cellulose degraders as screened on CMC agar flooded with iodine. Also, the Z: C ratio of the fungal and bacterial isolates were recorded to see the degradation potential. Further, characterization of cellulose degraders on the basis of culture and morphology was done and for bacterial isolates biochemical tests were also performed. Results of the Biochemical tests were fed into the ABIS online bacterial identification tool and the bacterial isolates were identified as Bacillus subtilis ~98% (acc: 30%), Bacillus licheniformis ~99% (acc: 32%), Streptococcus ~97% (acc:20%), Bacillus smithii 99% (acc: 30%), Bacillus firmus 99% (acc: 33%), Brevibacillus laterosporus 98% (acc: 32%), Pseudomonas chlororaphis 75% (acc: 33%). However, the 16s rRNA sequencing has to be performed for confirmation of the bacterial isolates. While the fungal isolates obtained were identified as Aspergillus niger, Penicillium, Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus on the basis of cultural and morphological characterization. The isolated bacterial strains will not only help in the production of useful end products from bio-degradation of the abundant, inexpensive and renewable cellulose wastes but also help in the proper disposal of agricultural and domestic wastes.