Isolation of cellulose producing Gluconacetobacter xylinum from fermented sugarcane juice

Microbial cellulose synthesised by Gluconacetobacter xylinum is a new biopolymer with a high tensile strength and thermal stability. It is expected to be a new industrial material for the production of cellulose based products. A study was undertaken to isolate elite cellulose producing G. xylinum strain from various sugar rich sources. Cellulose producing strain was isolated, characterised and selected based on the pellicle type, colony morphology and amount of cellulose production. The selected strain G. xylinum (sju-1) isolated from high sucrose containing sugarcane variety Co1148 had a stable and consistent production of cellulose pellicle. G. xylinum (sju-1) produced 14.10 g L⁻¹ of cellulose with thickness of 13 mm. G. xylinum NCIM 2526 produced only 11.40 g L⁻¹ of cellulose. The weight of the cellulose produced by (sju-1) isolate was found to be significant at p<0.05, compared to the cellulose produced by G. xylinum NCIM 2526. The higher water holding capacity (85.50 per cent) and crude fibre content (11.25 g) of cellulose produced by G. xylinum (sju-1) clearly indicated that the product is highly juicy and fibrous in nature. The results of the present investigation proved that the sugarcane juice naturally harbours G. xylinum. Fourier Transforming Infrared Spectroscopy of bacterial cellulose clearly indicated that G. xylinum (sju-1) showed higher content of cellulose type Iα. The isolated strain (sju-1) can be exploited for high quality cellulose manufacturing at the industrial level by mass production using sugarcane industry wastes also