Cellulase Activity Enhancement of Bacteria Isolated From Oil-Pump Soil Using Substrate and Medium Optimization

Cellulase is composed of more than one distinctive enzymes which can degrade cellulose and is produced by a wide variety of fungal and bacterial species and the enzyme is transported across the cell membrane to the outside environment. The product of cellulose degradation is known to form glucose and important monomer highly used in food industry for producing various commercial products including alcohol. The problem lies in converting lipid rich cellulose source or cellulose from plants with a higher quantity of unsaturated fatty acids. This problem has created a need of finding bacteria capable of cellulose digestion without the inhibitory effects of lipids and poly-unsaturated fatty acids. To solve this problem, bacterial specie was isolated from a soil rich in oil, since it was collected from a petrol pump with little trace of vegetative cover. Also, due to lack of oxygen there was a chance of acclimatization of the bacteria and developing itself as an anaerobe. The cellulomonas medium was optimized by using different amino acids, Carbon sources, and Nitrogen sources. Extracted crude cellulase was subjected to change in pH, incubation temperature and metal ion supplementation and was inferred that Cysteine proved to be the best amino acid supplement followed by maltose being a good carbon supplement and ammonium chloride for nitrogen. At 60 ˚C and pH 7.15 the crude cellulase yielded higher glucose. Also a supplementation of Cobalt and Manganse enhanced the cellulase production enlightening the way that it may be used in traces for any metabolic pathway feeding the cellulase production. The colonies producing the crude cellulase had been tested on Whatman No.1 filter paper and have been found to grow colonied utilizing the filter paper as substrate. This infers the ability of the bacterium to produce cellulase and decay cellulose even at stressful conditions. The enhanced cellulase has negligible effect of poly-unsaturated fatty acids and capable of cellulose digestion from a diverse source.