ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF XYLOSE UTILIZING BACTERIA

ABSTRACT

The use of Agricultural waste in the production of high-value-added bioproducts has become more interesting over time. However, most bacteria inability to ferment sugars other than glucose has had a significant impact on the production process. As a result, there is pressing need to scour nature for xylose consuming bacteria capable of effectively consuming the second most prevalent sugar (Xylose) in lignocellulosic materials. To do this, four agricultural waste samples were obtained from an open market in Benin city which include; corncob, carrot, onions and potato waste. Using nutrient agar supplemented with xylose as a culture medium, bacterial colonies were enumerated and isolated based on the cultural characteristics. Bacterial count ranged from 5.2 x 106 cfu\ml to 0.2 x 106 cfu\ml, with onions having the highest bacterial count and corncob having the lowest bacterial count. The bacteria isolate which utilized xylose best as a carbon source for growth was quantified using orcinol assay method. There bacterial isolates were obtained from onions and corncob waste while two isolates were obtained from potato and carrot, respectively. The highest xylose utilizer among all the isolates derived from each sample was from corncob with a concentration of 26.5 g/L. However, the highest xylose utilizer from onions waste was 31 g/L, potato waste was 28 g\L and carrot waste was 36 g/L. Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter sp. and Listeria sp. were the array of bacteria identified in descending order of xylose utilization. The findings from this study shows that Staphylococcus aureus is the highest utilizer of xylose and could be utilized for industrial production of value-added products from waste in order to obtain a high yield.