Isolation and Identification of a Potential Cellulose Degrading Bacterium Bacillus sp. Strain BCD1 from Cow Dung Sample

Cellulose polysaccharide is comprised with β-1,4 glycosidic linked D-glucose molecules and it became a most abundant organic substance in the environment. These resistant and water insoluble materials are majorly found in cell wall of plant system. It is gradually accumulated in environment as a dominant organic waste. We can utilize these cellulosic waste materials as an amenable energy source in form of easy sugars. The current article reveals on a potential cellulose degrading bacterium. The bacterium, BCD1 is isolated from a cow dung sample of Natunpally (23.17170°N, 87.52487°E) village of Mirzapur area, Burdwan, West Bengal, India. The mesophilic bacterium is a gram-positive in nature and grown optimally at 32°C temperature. The bacterial isolate is identified as Bacillus sp. strain BCD1 based on 16S rRNA gene based molecular phylogenetic approach. The BCD1 bacterium expresses 0.67 Cellulolytic index in Congo red screening technique. The article also discusses about the quantitative estimation of cellulose degradation by performing extracellular protein concentration and dinitrosalicylic assay. The efficiency of the enzyme liberated by Bacillus sp. strain BCD1 is 16.9780 mg glucose liberated/mg protein / 30 minutes at 32˚C temperature.