Isolation and Identification of cellulase producing actinobacterium CAE 44 (KU519614) from the gut contents of the earthworm, Perionyx excavatus EM2 (KT716822).

Hijam Surnalata Devi; Mohan Chandra Kalita; Narayan Chandra Talukdar

Volume : V, Issue : II, February - 2016

Isolation and Identification of cellulase producing actinobacterium CAE 44 (KU519614) from the gut contents of the earthworm, Perionyx excavatus EM2 (KT716822).

Hijam Surnalata Devi, Mohan Chandra Kalita, Narayan Chandra Talukdar

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;In the present study, the earthworms of Perionyx excavatus EM2 (GenBank accession No. KT716822) inhabiting the decomposing banana pseudo stem were collected from Patsoi, Imphal west, Manipur, India and actinomycetes colonies were isolated from the gut contents of the worms by serial dilution technique by using three different media: Omeliansky&rsquo;s agar (OA) and Kenknight &amp; Munaier&rsquo;s agar (K&amp;M) medium supplemented with 0.1% cellulose and Nutrient agar medium. OA medium supplemented with 0.1% cellulose served as the appropriate medium for isolation of cellulolytic actinomycetes isolates. A total of nine actinomycetes isolates were obtained from the gut contents of Perionyx excavatus earthworm and the isolates were screened for cellulase activity by Congo Red Assay. All the 9 isolates showed positive result in cellulase assay. The isolate CAE 44 which developed maximum zone of clearance was identified as actinomycete bacterium by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. This actinomycete was found to be gram positive and spore forming bacteria. The identified bacterial sequence was submitted in GenBank under the accession number KU519614. The phylogenetic tree analysis by neighbor&ndash;joining method confirmed that the isolate CAE 44 belongs to Streptomyces microflavus.</p>