Ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials involved a multistep Bleomycin clinical trial process in which the size of the biomass should be reduced by pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose to simple

sugars and finally conversion of released sugars into ethanol. The crop stubbles left out in the field after harvesting (rice and sorghum) and tree residues were routinely burned around the globe which creates serious pollution and health issues [8]. However, all these crop residues represent a biofuel feedstock for ethanol production due to their cheaper cost, easy availability, easy processability, non-hazardous, non-abrasive, recyclable and environmental friendly nature. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the enzymatic saccharification of steam pretreated cellulosic plant biomass by the newly isolated halotolerant marine actinomycetes bacterium, Isoptericola sp.

JS-C42 and simultaneous conversion into ethanol by fermentation assisted by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Marine sediment samples were collected randomly from the Arabian Sea at Kanyakumari, India. The samples OSI-906 purchase were transferred to the laboratory under sterile conditions and stored at 4 °C until use. Soil samples were serially diluted in sterile distilled water and spread plated over the slightly modified medium containing 10.0 g cellulose, 2.0 g NaNO3, 0.5 g KCl, 1.0 g K2HPO4, 0.5 g MgSO4, 20 μM FeSO4, 15 g agar, 1 L seawater, pH 7.6 and 15 μg nalidixic acid to prevent the growth of Gram-negative bacteria [9] and incubated at 28 ± 2 °C DNA ligase for 3–5 days. Cellulase activity was screened qualitatively by growing the isolate on the cellulose agar (10.0 g cellulose, 2.0 g NaNO3, 0.5 g KCl,

1.0 g K2HPO4, 0.5 g MgSO4, 20 μM FeSO4·5H2O, 15 g agar per L, pH 7.6) at 30 °C for 48 h. After incubation, the cellulose agar plates were flooded with 3.0 mL Gram’s iodine solution (KI 2.0 g, iodine 1.0 g in 300 mL distilled water) for 5 min [10] and the appearance of clearance zone was observed. The experiment was done in triplicates. The carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) agar (10.0 g CMC, 2.0 g NaNO3, 0.5 g KCl, 1.0 g K2HPO4, 0.5 g MgSO4, 20 μM FeSO4, 15.0 g agar, 1.0 L water, pH 7.6) was used for the evaluation of cellulase production by inoculating the bacterial isolate. The CMC-agar plates were incubated at 28 ± 2 °C for 3 days. The clearance zone displaying cellulase activity was detected by staining the CMC-agar plate with 0.1% Congo red solution for 15 min and destained with 1 M NaCl for 20 min [11]. The extracellular enzyme produced by the cellulolytic strain JS-C42 in modified cellulose medium was concentrated by 60% ammonium sulphate precipitation and dialyzed using a dialysis tubing with a molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) of 12,000 (globular proteins) (Sigma–Aldrich, USA) bathed in a citrate buffer.