Cellulolytic bacteria associated with sloughing spoilage of California ripe olives

Sloughing spoilage of California ripe olives during processing is characterized by severe softening, skin rupture, and flesh sloughing. It was assumed that cellulolytic activity was responsible for skin rupture and sloughing of flesh, and so a deliberate search was made for cellulolytic bacteria from olives undergoing sloughing spoilage. A bacterium identified as Cellulomonas flavigena was highly cellulolytic, attacking filter paper, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) gel, and olive tissue. Other bacteria attacking CMC, but not filter paper, enhanced the activity of the Cellulomonas strain when grown in mixed culture, although they did not, in pure culture, have any effect on filter paper. These latter cultures (all degraded olive tissue) represented the genera Xanthomonas, Aerobacter, and Escherichia. Other noncellulolytic bacteria belonging to the genera Alcaligenes, Kurthia, and Micrococcus also were used for study of mixed culture fermentation of cellulose by C. flavigena. Cellobiose accumulation at levels of 1.0% (w/v) and above suppressed growth of C. flavigena.