A New Salt-Tolerant Thermostable Cellulase from a Marine Bacillus sp. Strain

A salt-tolerant cellulase secreted by a marine Bacillus sp. SR22 strain with wide resistance to temperature and pH was purified and characterized. Its approximate mass was 37 kDa. The endoglucanase, named as Bc22Cel, was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration chromatography, and extraction from the gel after non-reducing sodium dodecyl sufate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The optimal pH value and temperature of Bc22Cel were 6.5 and $60^{\circ}C$, respectively. The purified Bc22Cel showed a considerable halophilic property, being able to maintain more than 70% of residual activity even when pre-incubated with 1.5 M NaCl for 1 h. Kinetic analysis of the purified enzyme showed the $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ to be 0.704 mg/ml and $29.85{\mu}mol{\cdot}ml^{-1}{\cdot}min^{-1}$, respectively. Taken together, the present data indicate Bc22Cel as a potential and useful candidate for industrial applications, such as the bioconversion of sugarcane bagasse to its derivatives.