Molecular diversity among cellulolytic bacterial cultures isolated from rural and urban wastes

A total of 34 samples of decomposing rural and urban wastes were collected from different partsof Western Maharashtra from which 64 bacteria, 49 fungi and 63 actinomycetes strains were isolated. Theseisolates were screened for cellulase activity and the efficient cellulolytic microorganisms were identified onthe basis of morphological, cultural and biochemical characters. Among cellulolytic bacterial isolates, basedon cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics, 11 isolates were identified as Bacillus spp., 3 asPseudomonas spp., while the remaining three belonged to Cellulomonas, Staphylococcus and Micrococcusgenus. The Bacillus isolates were further studied for their molecular diversity within group. The PCRamplification products of the 12 isolates of Bacillus spp. including standard Bacillus strain with 16 randomprimers produced 343 bands, out of which 182 bands were polymorphic and 158 bands were unique.Majority of the primers showed 100% polymorphism. The average polymorphism observed was 99.13%. Thegenetic similarity index based on the pooled data of RAPD profiles from all the 16 primers ranged from 0.11to 0.76 among Bacillus isolates. The dendrogram constructed from the pooled data showed four majorgroups showing wide genetic variability between the isolates. There was wide genetic variability in Bacillusspp. at genus level from the same ecological niche.