Isolation, Screening and Production of Bacterial Cellulase from Cow Dung

Abstract

Cellulases are the most important industrial enzyme due to their potential application in various industries including pulp and paper, textile, laundry, biofuel production, food and feed industry, brewing and agriculture. The present study was carried out to isolate and characterize cellulase producing microorganisms from different cow dung samples. Four different cow dung samples were collected from variety of cows namely Gir, Holstein, Jersey and Desi and isolation and screening was done to check cellulase producing microorganisms. The obtained 11 isolates were screened for their cellulase activity by using CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) agar medium. In the current study, 10 cellulase producing isolates were obtained and were characterized morphologically from which 8 isolates were found Gram negative and 2 were found Gram positive. All the 10 cellulase producers were further confirmed for their cellulase producing ability by performing turbidity test. Out of these 10 isolates, GN4 and HN2 with optical density 0.35 and 0.28, respectively were found to be best cellulase producer and were selected for cellulase enzyme production and other further studies. Botssh the isolates were tested for their enzymatic activities by performing DNSA method and protein estimation by Lowry’s method. Cellulase activities were found to be 7.33 µg/ml/min and 3.66 µg/ml/min and the total protein concentrations were found to be 40 µg/ml and 32 µg/ml for GN4 and HN2, respectively. Thus, dungs cow dung can be considered as the excellent source for cellulase producing bacteria.