Abstract
Fungi are plentiful in nature and they are found growing on wastes of wood materials. These wastes are equally found in our environment with no usefulness. The aim of this study was to exploit the probability of the isolated fungi from fruits to produce cellulase from wastes of lignocellulosic materials. Cellulase- producing fungi were isolated from fruits (tomato, banana, plantain). The organisms were screened for cellulase production. Culture conditions were optimized with pH, temperature and carbon. Cellulase was produced using lignocellulosic wastes; sawdust, corn cob, sugarcane bagasse. Six cellulase producers were isolated, four of which were selected for synthesis and quantification of the cellulase. The fungi were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae4, Trichoderma species1 and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis1. Of all the tested substrates used in this study, pretreated sugarcane bagasse at 3% w/v concentration with Scopulariopsis brevicaulis gave highest cellulase production 18.18 U/mL at 40°C, 5day incubation time and pH 5, followed by Trichoderma with 12.39 U/mL. These fungi are good potentials cellulase producers that can be considered at industrial level.
Highlights
Cellulolytic enzymes are of three groups, Endo-(1, 4)-β- D glucanase, Exo- (1, 4) β- D glucanase and β glycosidase (Zhang et al, 2006)
The six (6) fungi used in this study showed the ability to produce cellulase on carboxyl methyl cellulose
Maximum cellulase activity of 2.45 U/mL and 2.56 U/mL were noticed for Trichoderma sp. (TRC) and SAC3 respectively at pH 5 while 4.11 U/mL cellulase activity was for SAC1 at pH 7
Summary
Cellulolytic enzymes are of three groups, Endo-(1, 4)-β- D glucanase, Exo- (1, 4) β- D glucanase and β glycosidase (Zhang et al, 2006). Media used in cellulase fermentation may contain cellulose in different degree of limpidness or as raw plant waste substrate (Aiello, 1996). Cellulose is the most abundant and renewable biopolymer on earth. It is the dominating waste material from agriculture and constitutes the waste generated from both natural and manmade activities. Cellulose is generally degraded by a multi-complex enzyme called cellulases. Synergistic mechanism among three types of enzymes namely endoglucanase, exoglucanase and β-glucosidase are requisite for the inclusive enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose biopolymer (Gao et al, 2008). The number of glucose units in the cellulose molecules varies and degree of polymerization ranges from 250 to over 10,000 depending on the source and treatment method (Klemm et al, 2005)
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