Isolation of the polysaccharidase-producing bacteria from the gut of sea snail, Batillus cornutus

Abstract

This study was conducted to isolate microorganisms from the gut of the marine turban shell, Batillus cornutus, which inhabits the mainland of South Korea and primarily feeds on brown algae. We were interested in isolating such gut bacteria by considering their potential to produce the polysaccharidases required for digestion of brown seaweeds and isolated three different bacteria from the gut of Batillus cornutus. The isolated bacteria were identified as Bacillus sp. JMP-A, Bacillus sp. JMP-B and Staphylococcus sp. JMP-C. The organisms were evaluated for their ability to produce polysaccharidases such as cellulase, alginate lyase, laminarinase and kelp-lyase. Bacillus sp. JMP-A and Bacillus sp. JMP-B showed a clear zone of CMC hydrolysis with a radius 1.10 (+/- 0.057) and 3.88 cm (+/- 0.088), respectively, whereas Staphylococcus sp. JMP-C showed no zone of CMC hydrolysis. SEM analysis confirmed that the ability of the bacterial isolates to degrade kelp differs and is correlated with kelp-lyase production. The cell free extract of the Bacillus sp. JMP-A isolate showed the highest activities of CM-cellulase, alpha-cellulase, laminarinase and kelp-lyase, which were 22.76, 27.10, 66.59 and 64.36 U/mg, respectively. Meanwhile, the amount of sugars released was higher during the saccharification of kelp by dialyzed intracellular enzymes of the bacterial isolates than when dialyzed extracellular enzyme was used. Experimental results of dialyzed enzymatic saccharification of the kelp demonstrated that use of partially purified enzymes was effective for glucose production.