Abstract:
Cellulolytic bacteria are freely found in the soil and are responsible for degradation of cellulose.
Cellulose occurs in a wide variety of living species from the worlds of plants, animals and
bacteria as well as amoebas. Cellulose is degraded by cellulase enzyme which consists of three
classes of soluble extracellular enzymes: endoglucanases, exoglucanases and betaglycosidases.
The
key
objective
of
the
study
was
to
isolate,
identify
and
characterize
cellulolytic
bacteria
from
the
soil
collected
from
a
forest
environment
within
the
University
of
Embu.
Soil
samples
were
collected
few
meters
from
the
main
campus
and
taken
to
the
laboratory. The soil samples were inoculated separately to obtain single bacterial isolates and
grown in culture medium under favorable laboratory conditions. A total of five bacterial
isolates namely X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 were found likely to belong from the bacillus genus.
Gram staining was done as the first step of identification and 3 bacterial isolates were found to
be gram positive and two gram negative bacteria. Morphological identification included colony
characteristics and microscopic features. Finally various biochemical tests were done to
determine the isolates ability to degrade various substrates such as citrate and starch. This study
shows that the forest soils of the University of Embu is potent source of celluloytic microbes
that could be utilized in industrial and biotechnological research.
