Synergistic Effects of Cellulase-Producing Microorganisms for Future Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass can nowadays be bioconverted to value-added biofuels by numerous cellulases purified from diverse microbes. In nature, complex microbial communities produce multifunctional cellulase systems with broader substrate utilization and act sequentially in the synergistic action by subsequently converting cellulose into an utilizable energy source and glucose. This research was to apply cellulase producing isolates based on their possible synergistic action to degrade complex cellulose containing biomass. In the study, the microorganism species, isolated species from durian peels after macerated for 3 days and shown for their high biodegradation activity, Bacillus spp. (B12, B13, and B16) and Pseudomonas spp., (B23 and B55), could express high cellulase activity on carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and filter paper (FP). Bacillus spp. B13 and B16 showed high cellulase activity on soluble cellulose of CMC while B12 and B55 displayed high cellulase activity on crystalline insoluble cellulose of FP. To observe the synergistic effect of the cellulase-producing consortia, co-cultures of B12,B23 and F23 were grew well on both CMC and FP. Therefore, these findings of synergistic effects of microbial consortia could bring us a future work to develop high efficient cellulase producing systems for further industry application.