Molecular Characterization of Oil Degrading Bacteria Bacillus Subtilis

The oil-contaminated soil was collected from petrol bunk in Omalur. Among the isolated 11 bacterial strains 5 strains were showed haemolytic activity compared to other strains. In blue gar plate assay, apart from the 11 strains BS4 strain only showed positive results. In secondary screening assay, BS4 showed positive results for drop collapse assay, oil spreading assay, emulsification index assay and formability assay. Gram staining techniques and biochemical assay were done for the identification and morphological characteristics of isolated bacterial strain BS4. The BS4 strain showed zone of clearance in protease assay and displayed the biofilm forming ability. The isolated bacterial strain BS4 showed highly susceptibility to ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol, whereas sensitive to ampicillin. The isolated genomic DNA was amplified using 16S rRNA gene primer and the amplified product was analyzed and sequenced. The Bacillus subtilis was identified by the Nucleotide BLAST search in NCBI nucleotide database. Further studies are warranted to extract and characterize the biosurfactant producing bacteria.