Characterization of Exopolysaccharides Produced by Marine Bacteria Bacillus cereus

Abstract

An exopolysaccharide producing marine bacterium (PMSS5) was isolated from Pichavaram, Cuddalore, Tamil nadu, India. Morphological characterization demonstrated that the bacterium was a gram positive, motile bacillus. 16S rRNA sequence showed 99% similarity to Bacillus cereus. Further the bacteria were subjected to the submerged production of exopolysaccharide and the produced exopolysaccharide was characterized by FT-IR, ¹H¹³C NMR and SEM with EDAX. The FT-IR spectrum of polysaccharide obtained from Bacillus cereus (PMSS5) showed many characteristic peaks. ¹H¹³C NMR revealed that the polysaccharide was a branched levan homopolysaccharide of fructofuranosyl (2, 6) ? linkage with side chains. The SEM with EDAXshowed that polysaccharides were formed as nanogranules and aggregated as large crystalline material. The EDAX showed that 50% of Carbon and 30% of oxygen further confirmed the resultant polysaccharide compounds.

Keywords: Marine Bacteria, Bacillus cereus, FT-IR, NMR, SEM