An Investigation of Cellulose Digesting Bacteria in the Camel Feces Microbiome

Abstract:

Research Question: Is there a bacteria in camel feces that digests cellulose material and can be used for waste to energy projects?   Fossil fuels are the current main resource of energy in the modern world. However, as the demand for fuel increases, biofuels have been proposed as an alternative energy source that is a more sustainable form of liquid fuel generation from living things or waste, commonly known as biofuels and ethanol. The Camelus dromedarius’, also known as Arabian camel, diet consist of grass, grains, wheat and oats as well desert vegetation in their natural habitat. However, as the Arabian camel lacks the enzymes to degrade cellulose, it is hypothesized that cellulose digestion is performed by microbial symbionts in camel microbiota. Fecal samples were collected from the Camelus dromedarius in United Arab Emirates and diluted 10-7 times. The diluted sample was then streaked onto a Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose plate, and inoculated onto CMC and Azure-B plates. Afterwards, Congo Red was used for staining in order to identify clearance zones of single colonies that may potentially be used as a qualitative assays for cellulose digestion. Then the colonies undergo polymerase chain reaction amplification to produce amplified RNA fragments. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene is identified based on BLAST result using Sanger Sequencing. Amongst the three identified microbes: Bacillus, Staphylococcus and Escherichia coli, both Bacillus and Staphylococcus are cellulose-digesting microbes, and through the fermentation of lignocellulosic, biomasses can be converted into cellulosic ethanol (Biofuel). According to the Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol by Adam J. Liska, ““Ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40-50% when compared directly to gasoline.” The determination of bacterial communities that are capable of efficiently and effectively digesting cellulose materials requires that the bacteria be first isolated and then a full genome characterization. This bacteria study is apart of a much larger study and will be tested against the gut microbiome of other animals successfully digesting cellulose to determine the ones that are best suited for biofuel production.