Abstract

In this study an extracellular chitinase producing bacterium was isolated from shrimp shell waste. It produced circular, flat, smooth, opaque and white colonies on nutrient agar. These were facultative anaerobic, gram-variable rods with peritrichous flagella and formed ellipsoidal spores in swollen sporangia. The biochemical examinations revealed the positive reaction for test Methyl red, Triple Sugar Iron, Oxidase, Catalase, Urease, Starch hydrolysis, Casein hydrolysis, Glucose, Galactose, Maltose, Mannose, Mannitol, Xylose and negative reactions for the tests of Iodole, Voges-Proskauer, Citrate, Nitrate, Gelatin liquefaction, Arginine dihydrolation, Lysine decarboxylation, Ornithine decarboxylation, Arabinose. Molecular identification was performed by 16S rDNA amplification and sequencing. It was amplified using forward primer: 5ʹ TAG GGA AGA TAA TGA CGG 3ʹ and reverse primer: 5ʹ CCT CTA TCC TCT TTC CAA CC 3ʹ. The amplified polymerase chain reaction product when run in agarose gel was found having a molecular weight approximately of ~1.4kp when compared with the DNA marker. The amplified product was sequenced and sequence confirmed the isolated bacterium was Paenibacillus elgii. Gene sequence was submitted to NCBI bearing Accession No. JQ735954. The isolated strain was named as Paenibacillus elgii TS33. Further, the extracellular chitinase enzyme was found to have a chitinolytic activity of 163U/ml in chitin substrate. Paenibacillus elgii TS33 showed antifungal activity against three fungal pathogens: Fusarium solani, Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus fumigates

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