초록
<P>Due to a high ethanol demand, the approach for effective ethanol production is important and has been developed rapidly worldwide. Several agricultural wastes are highly abundant in celluloses and the effective cellulase enzymes do exist widely among microorganisms. Accordingly, the cellulose degradation using microbial cellulase to produce a low-cost substrate for ethanol production has attracted more attention. In this study, the cellulase producing bacterial strain has been isolated from rich straw and identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis as <I>Acinetobacter</I> sp. KKU44. This strain is able to grow and exhibit the cellulase activity. The optimal temperature for its growth and cellulase production is 37 °C. The optimal temperature of bacterial cellulase activity is 60 °C. The cellulase enzyme from <I>Acinetobacter</I> sp. KKU44 is heat-tolerant enzyme. The bacterial culture of 36 h. showed highest cellulase activity at 120 U/mL when grown in LB medium containing 2% (w/v). The capability of <I>Acinetobacter</I> sp. KKU44 to grow in cellulosic agricultural wastes as a sole carbon source and exhibiting the high cellulase activity at high temperature suggested that this strain could be potentially developed further as a cellulose degrading strain for a production of low-cost substrate used in ethanol production.</P>