Abstract:
Cellulose is the most abundant biological compound on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem and
is the main component of plant biomass.it is dominant in waste materials from agricultural
industry in the form of stalks, stems and husk and there has been great interest in utilizing
cellulose as an energy source and feed. This study was conducted to isolate, identify and
characterize bacteria from Dam five forest soils in University of Embu which may be useful in
different industrial applications such as the biofuel industry. Isolation was done by spread
plating in media containing cellulose and incubated at 32°C for 48 hours, after which the pure
isolates were obtained by repeated streaking in nutrient agar. Six bacteria isolates were found
to have the ability to utilize cellulose as the main substrate. Morphological identification was
done under the compound microscope to describe the physical characteristics of bacteria.
Biochemical properties and utilization of different substrates was tested on the pure isolates.
Five isolates were found to be non-spore forming and only one was spore forming. Ability to
grow at different physiological conditions was tested by growing the isolates at different salt
concentrations of 2%, 5% and 10%. All the concentrations supported optimum growth of the
microbes. In conclusion, the isolates were found to have varying ability to utilize the different
substrates such as xylose, glycerol, skimmed milk, Simmons citrate and starch and ability to
grow at varying salt concentration.
