Received: 20-05-2018 / Accepted: 09-07-2018
The purposesof this study wereto selectandidentify species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) capable of producing high extracellular cellulase and to determine some cultural conditions affectingcellulase production of selected strains. Fortystrains producing extracellular cellulasewere selected from 120LAB strains isolated from some traditional fermented foods. Of40 strains producing extracellular cellulase, 10 strains produced cellulase withhigh enzyme activities with diameter of substrate hydrolyzing zone reachingfrom 11 to 15 mm. DP4.8 strainwithhighest cellulase productivitywas further investigated onthe effect of some culture conditions such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) concentration, cultural temperature, cultural time on producing cellulase. Results showed that CMC concentration of 1.0%, culture temperature at 37oC, and culture time (36h) were the best conditionsfor producing cellulase.In addition, DP4.8 strain was analysedbypheSgenesequencingandcomparedwiththe known sequence database in EMBL and BCCM/LMG collection of Ghent University, Belgium. This strain was identified to be Lactobacillus rossiaes.