ISOLATION OF Bacillus subtilis CAPABLE OF DEGRADING AGRICULTURAL WASTES

Epe district is a town located on the north side of Lekki, Lagos state. Epe’s temperature ranges from about 40 to 70 degrees centigrade. Considering humidity, temperature peaks high most of the time. The months with the highest temperatures are February, March, and April. And the rainy seasons start from June to September. The sample solid waste materials considered for this study were chopped and weighed approximately 3.0 to 3.5 Kgs, were mostly taken from the Epe district and then moved to a garden where it was let to decompose for 4 weeks. The soil test sample that was used weighed approximately 2.5 to 3.0kgs and was taken to the laboratory for further investigation for the presence of bacteria. Objective: The goal of the study includes the extraction of the Solid waste sample and isolation of B. subtilis bacteria. Other bacillus species like Pseudomonas spp, B. cereus, Bacillus subtilis, E. coli, and B. thuringiensis. were found in the sample. According to previous research, B. subtilis has been found to produce cellulase enzymes that degrade cellulose into sugars. Agriculture wastes like rice straw and husk, maize, wheat, woodchips, and other agricultural waste are rich in cellulose. Other enzymes like pectinase and lignin peroxidase are found in bacteria that degrade complex components like cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in agricultural waste. The B. subtilis was bacteria of interest whereby isolation was done by screening microorganisms producing cellulase using CMC agar. Then identification of the bacterial isolate was done through morphological and physiological characterization and identifying the genus level according to Bergey’s Manual of Determination Bacteriology (8th edition). API strips (20E kit) were used in identifying gram-positive bacteria.