VASAVI DATHAR, KOTESWAR RAO V. AND PAVAN KUMAR PINDI
Abstract
Cellulose constitutes the primary product of photosynthesis and is the most abundant bio resource produced in the biosphere. It is an important structural component of green plants, many forms of algae, the Oomycetes and some bacterial biofilms. Microorganisms are reported to produce the enzyme cellulase which breaks down cellulose into monosaccharide ?-glucose and oligosaccharides. Cellulases are used in paper pulp industry, detergent industry, olive oil extraction; textile industry; clarification of fruit juices and extraction of carotenoids. In the present work, a photosynthetic purple non-sulphur bacterium was isolated from effluents of paper pulp industry, Mahabubnagar, Telangana State, India, by enrichment into Biebl and Pfennigâs medium, the culture was streaked onto CMC agar and incubated under anaerobic light conditions. The colonies were examined for the production of cellulase after 2 weeks. Cellulase production in terms of glucose liberated was estimated by DNS method by growing the bacterium in CMC broth. The bacterium is a Gram negative motile rod. The colour of the cell suspension was dark pink. It could utilize fructose, glucose, glycerol, mannitol, tartrate, thiosulphate, galactose, CMC and cellulose as carbon sources. Molecular identification of 16S rRNA sequence has shown similarity to Rhodopseudomonas sps. The physicochemical parameters of the sample measured were pH- 7.0, temperature- 37 0C, BOD- 95.2, COD- 160.4, chlorides- 263.6, TSS- 210 and TDS- 910 mg/lit.