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Thirty-nine xylanolytic bacteria tentatively identified as Clostridia were isolated from a selection of agricultural and forest soil samples, and water–sediment–fibre samples from acidic springs in the Yellowstone National Park. Screening for xylan hydrolysis was performed using an enriched agar medium at pH 5.5 with Remazol–xylan as the indicator, with or without an initial enrichment using xylan as the major carbon source. From 13 of the most highly xylanolytic strains, 9 were tentatively identified as Clostridium acetobutylicum, 2 as Clostridium butyricum, and 2 as Clostridium beijerinckii. The C. acetobutylicum isolate 3BYR utilized 80% of oat spelt xylan as a carbon source during growth. The bacterium exhibited very high extracellular xylanase and xylosidase activities and, as well, α-L-arabinofuranosidase and α-glucuronidase activities. Glucuronidase activity was documented by the release of 4-O-methyl-α-D-glucuronic acid from birchwood xylan. The results of this work indicate the ubiquity of xylanolytic Clostridia, and that the previously unreported activity, α-glucuronidase, has been demonstrated in C. acetobutylicum. Key words: α-glucuronidase, xylanase, Clostridium acetobutylicum, xylan.

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