Screening and characterization of cellulolytic bacteria isolated from arctic soil and sediment samples

Abstract

The study on microorganisms living in extreme cold environment such as the arctic and antarctic regions is important for the biotechnological exploration and biodiversity. Such organisms however, could have enzymes capable of degrading complex molecules at low temperature. In this work, culturable bacteria from arctic soil and sediment samples have been isolated under low temperature (20ºC), using Antarctic Bacterium medium (ABM). A total of 40 different bacteria were isolated and screen for their ability to produce cellulase using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as substrates. Cellulase producing bacteria were selected based on their hydrolytic coefficient. Molecular characterizations of the potent cellulase producing isolates were carried out using 16S rRNA gene sequence method. The effects of temperature, pH and salinity were tested on four bacterial isolates that showed high cellulase activity. However only two of the isolates (SL9 and SL 19) were able to retains their cellulolytic activity at 5%, 10%, and 15% salt concentrations. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence and the phylogenetic analysis, the four potential cellulolytic bacterial isolates were identified as Massilia sp. and Pseudomonas sp. The findings of this work suggested that arctic bacterial isolates such as Massilia and Peudomonas species could serve as promising agents for the production of bacterial cellulase with various biotechnological applications; such as food supplement, animal feed supplement as well as bioremediation of pharmaceutical wastewater.