Searching for Versatile Polysaccharide-Degrading Alkali-tolerant or Alkaliphilic Bacillus Strains

The plant-derived polysaccharides (Cellulose, xylose and amylose, etc.) are the most abundant renewable raw materials in nature. Cellulose and xylose are the predominant carbohydrate polymer components of the plant cell walls and the most abundant biopolymers in the world. Another plant-derived polysaccharide, starch is found in plant tubers, roots and seed endosperms as a major carbohydrate reserve. In this study, it was aimed to find multi-enzyme producer bacteria strains in terms of industrially important enzymes such as cellulase, xylanase and amylase. For this purpose, isolated Bacillus strains from different samples were qualitatively evaluated for cellulase, xylanase and amylase enzyme production potentials. The isolates that have the highest enzyme activity were selected for biochemical tests, molecular and phenotypic characterization. As a result of these characterization process, SB57, SB104, SB155, SB178, SB197 and SB199 strains were identified as Bacillus pumilus and SB118, SB138 strains were identified as Bacillus safensis. In addition to these strains, SB120 and SB147 strains were identified as Bacillus aerius and Bacillus licheniformis respectively. 16S rDNA sequence analysis results of these Bacillus strains were deposited in NCBI GenBank® under accession number KT371465 - KT371474 respectively.