Isolation and Molecular Identification of Chitinolytic Bacteria from Ronto

Abstract

Ronto is a traditional food from South Kalimantan made of processed rebon shrimp. The production of Ronto relies on the fermentation process done by various types of microorganisms, especially bacteria. With shrimp as the main ingredient, Ronto has a high salt concentration and low pH level. Therefore, there is a potential in the exploration of chitinolytic bacteria with specific characteristics in Ronto. This study aimed to isolate and identify chitinolytic bacteria in Ronto. Ronto that was used in this experiment had a pH of 5. The isolation of chitinolytic bacteria using chitin agar obtained 10 isolates, namely RNT1, RNT2, RNT4, RNT5, RNT6, RNT7, RNT8, RNT9, RNT10, and RNT11. The chitinolytic index of these isolates ranged from 1.1 to 2.8. The highest chitinolytic index was shown by isolate RNT8. Molecular identification using a partial 16s rRNA gene shows that all isolates were similar to Bacillus sp.