Isolation, Identification and Metabolic Characteriz- Ation of Cellulolytic Enzyme Producing Bacteria from Banana Pseudostem Waste Using Phenotypic Microarray Technology

The purpose of this study was to isolate cellulolytic enzyme producing bacteria which may able to utilize banana pseudostem as sole carbon source for production of cellulolytic enzymes. This was attempted by isolating 10 bacteria from banana pseudostem waste. Out of the screened, isolate NAULH-5 showed high cellulolytic activity. The isolate NAULH-5 produced highest 5.97 U/mg endoglucanase, 2.27 U/mg exoglucanase and 3.55 U/ mg β-glucosidase enzymes at neutral pH and 5.76 U/mg endoglucanase, 2.18 U/mg exoglucanase & 3.19 U/mg β-glucosidase enzymes at 30OC. It also showed maximum 5.36 U/ mg endoglucanase, 2.23 U/mg exoglucanase and 3.38 U/mg β-glucosidase enzyme production at 28 days. A cellulolytic bacterial strain NAULH-5 exhibited morphological, biochemical and cultural characteristics of the Serratia genus. The antibiotic profiling data indicated that isolate NAULH-5 showed resistant against many complex antibiotics. The taxonomic characterization was done using phenotypic microarray technology, which assigned the isolate NAULH-5 to Serratia marcescens with 0.71 SIM index. The metabolic profiling revealed that isolate NAULH-5 may able to degrade most of the complex molecule. The carbon source metabolic network indicated that it operates all general metabolic pathways for utilization of complex molecules.