Production and purification of polysaccharide from marine bacterium isolated from sea cucumber

Abstract

The sea cucumber, Holothuria atra was used in this study in order to isolate and identify the associated bacterium. A bacterium was selected from 5 different colonies (G 1, G2, G3, G4 and G5) of bacteria obtained from the media cultured. The isolation and identification were done to produce and purify polysaccharide from that bacterium. This study also analyses the chemical composition of polysaccharide produced by the selected bacterium.The selected bacterium isolated from sea cucumber was identified as Gram Negative bacterium, Sphingomonas paucimobilis by using RaplD TM NF Plus system. The identification was obtained by combining of result from the biochemical characteristics. The yield of crude polysaccharide produced was 608.2 milligram (mg) per 1 liter (L) while the acidic polysaccharide was 231.6 mg per 1 L. Most of the purified acidic polysaccharide produced was from 0.4M to 0.6M concentration of NaCl buffer. The analyses of polysaccharide were carried out using Paper Chromatography (PC) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The sugar presence for PC analysis was maltose, galactose and rhamnose for crude and purified acidic polysaccharides. The HPLC shows the same sugar presence as PC analyses except for crude polysaccharide with the absence of maltose sugar.