Formulation of synthetic bacterial consortia and their evaluation by principal component analysis for lignocellulose rich biomass degradation

As lignocellulosic rich biomasses (LCB) and agriculture wastes are widespread and abundant sources of carbon in nature, their biodegradation for production of biofuel and value added products is gaining impetus worldwide. In the present study, ten synthetic consortia of three different cellulolytic species of Bacillus with Achromobacter xylosoxidans were formulated and evaluated for effective degradation of agro-wastes such as grass straw (GS), grass husk (GH), wheat husk (WH) and corn cob (CC) under two incubation conditions namely shaking and static. The estimations and analyses of patterns of enzyme activities such as endoglucanase, glucoamylase, β-glucosidase, exoglucanase and xylanase over the incubation period of 32 days and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated consortium CM10 comprising of all four bacterial strains was the most promising and active for the degradation of GS. Further investigation of potential of CM10 to degrade GS by employing CMC agar plate based assessment, scanning electron microscopy, thin layer chromatography, native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and zymogram analysis confirmed the high cellulolytic potential of consortium CM10. Based on outcome of this study, it is proposed that CM10 could be used for the production of multiple products such as cellulase, reducing sugars and microcrystalline cellulose through biodegradation of LCB.