Moderate halophilic bacterial community in excreta of wild ass (Equus hemionus khur)

Twenty-four moderate halophiles were isolated from excreta of wild ass, designated as Mk-1 to Mk-24. All the organisms were Gram's positive and non-capsulated. Biochemical characterization was performed on the basis of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology and all the isolates were belongs to Bacillus genera. Organisms were able to grow optimally at pH 5-6, 30-40˚C temperature and 10-15% NaCl (w/v) while no growth below 5% NaCl indicated moderate halophilic nature of isolates. All were grown in the presence of bile salt, indicated intestinal origin. Organisms were further explored for extracellular hydrolytic enzyme production such as lipases, proteases, amylases, cellulases and chitinase, apart from first aim to focus on biodiversity studies.