Among several Bacillus strains, isolated from various sources and cultivated under aerobic conditions, P. curdlanolyticus strain B-6 shows important evidences for multienzyme complex producing bacterium (Pason et al., 2006a) as follows: high production of cellulase and xylanase, presence of CBMs that have ability to bind to insoluble substances, adhesion of bacterial cells to insoluble substances, and production of multiple cellulases and xylanases in the form of a high molecular weight complex. Thus, strain B-6 exhibits great promise bacterium in the production of multienzyme complex under aerobic conditions. Some properties of bacterial cells and cellulase and xylanase from strain B-6 compared with other Bacillus spp. are shown in Table 2.

P. curdlanolyticus strain B-6 was a facultative, spore-forming, Gram-positive, motile, rod-shaped organism and produced catalase. Thus, this bacterium was identified as a member of the genus Bacillus according to Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology (Sneath, 1986). The bacterium was also identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The use of a specific PCR primer designed for differentiating the genus Paenibacillus from other members of the Bacillaceae showed that this strain had the same amplified 16S rRNA gene fragment as a member of the genus Paenibacillus. Based on these observations, it is reckoned that this strain was transferred to the genus Paenibacillus (Shida et al., 1997). The 16S rDNA sequence of this strain had 1,424 base pairs and 97% similarity with Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus (Innis & Gelfand, 1990).