Isolation, Screening and Characterization of Ureolytic Bacteria from Cave Ornament

Elsa Rohmah, Fuji Astuti Febria and Djong Hon Tjong

Background and Objective: Ureolytic bacteria are bacteria capable of hydrolyzing urea. In construction, these bacteria are known to help improve soil stability. One of the habitats of ureolytic bacteria is cave ornaments such as gourdam, flowstone, stalagmite and stalactite. This study aims to find isolates and characterization of ureolytic bacteria in cave ornaments. Materials and Methods: Urea-CaCl₂ was used as the isolation medium and urea agar medium was used as a qualitative urease test for cave ornament bacteria isolate. This study applied a survey method and tested for gram staining, spore staining, mannitol test, catalase test and lactose test for characterization. Results: There were 17 isolates positive for urease from 30 isolates from the isolates of cave ornament bacteria. The characteristics of 17 ureolytic bacteria isolates were 2 isolates gram-negative basil with negative lactose test and 1 isolate positive glucose and 1 isolate negative glucose. Total 15 isolates gram-positive basil with spore staining results, 14 isolates spore-positive with 2 isolates positive mannitol and 12 isolates negative mannitol and 1 isolate spore-negative with negative catalase. Conclusion: Total 17 ureolytic bacteria isolates were found from cave ornaments. Biochemical characterization showed 1 isolate of Proteus spp., 1 isolate of Pseudomonas spp, 2 isolates suspected of being Bacillus megaterium or Bacillus subtilis, 12 isolates of Bacillus cereus and 1 isolate of Lactobacillus spp.

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