Isolation and Characterization of Clostridia from the Feces of Wild Rabbit and Swine for Hemicellulosic Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) Production

Isolation and characterization of solventogenic bacteria from animal feces were carried out. Ten samples were collected continually for 5 d from the feces of wild rabbit and wild swine in Jawaharlal Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad, India. Ten acetone-positive strains were selected for evaluation of their phenotypic and physiological characteristics. Two potential solvent-producing cultures were selected for 16S rRNA gene analysis. The culture isolated from the wild rabbit feces exhibited 97.3% similarity with Clostridium beijerinckii 8052, and the culture isolated from the wild swine feces exhibited 93.8% similarity with Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum NI-4(HMT). The isolated strains utilized a wide range of carbohydrate substrates including glucose, fructose, maltose, xylose, arabinose, and glycerol. The major fermentation products from glucose, xylose, and arabinose were acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE). The total ABE concentration produced by strain YVU1 was 13.1 g/L from arabinose, 16.3 g/L from xylose, and 20.6 g/L from glucose. Strain YVU2 produced a total ABE concentration of 16.5 g/L, 18.3 g/L, and 22.4 g/L from arabinose, xylose, and glucose, respectively.