Diverse thermophilic species with multiple biotechnological activities are associated within the Egyptian soil and compost samples.

Thermophilic strains of can express enzymes of higher thermal stability, which allows carrying out industrial fermentations under higher temperatures. This lowers the contamination potential, accelerates mixing rates and facilitates the recovery of fermentation end products. The present study was thus designed to isolate and characterize thermophilic cultures from soil and compost samples. Forty-two thermophilic isolates could be identified employing morphological, physiological and the 16S rRNA gene sequencing analyses. The isolates showed a high degree of biological diversity involving 13 species and 1 subspecies but were dominated by . Phylogenetic analysis of isolates based on the DNA sequencing of and genes presented them in two main genetic groups. Isolates of five thermophilic species including and showed multiple activities to degrade all of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Those multifunctional thermophilic isolates can be harnessed in the degradation of plant wastes for the production of biofuels and compost.