Isolation and Identification of Thermophilic and Thermotolerant Cellulase Producing Fungi from Compost and Soil

Cellulases produced by thermophilic and thermotolerant fungi are usually thermostable and can be applied to industrial processes that occur at high temperature. Considering this, present study was aimed to isolate and identify the thermophilic and thermotolerant cellulase producing fungi from compost and soil samples. For that samples were plated on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA)-Chloramphenicol plate and incubated at 45℃ up to five days. Total twenty-nine fungal strains were isolated belonging to three genera Aspergillus, Rhizomucor and Rhizopus based on their morphological characterization. According to result of thermal stability test performed at two different temperatures of 18 and 45 ℃ from 29 fungal isolates 15 were thermotolerant while 14 were found to be thermophilic in nature. Screening of these isolates for hydrolysis of cellulose was confirmed by formation of clear halo zone surrounding fungal growth on Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) after flooding with grams iodine. All the isolates found positive for cellulase production in which member of genus Rhizomucor shows highest cellulolytic index values (1.51 to 2.32), followed by genus Aspergillus (1.17 to 1.59), and then Rhizopus (1.9). Four morphologically different potential isolates were further identified by ITS sequencing, among these two belongs to Zygomycotina (Rhizomucor pusillus FWC-B, Rhizopus microspores NADEP-W) and other two belong to Ascomycota (Aspergills fumigatus FWC-B, Aspergillus quadrilineatus PC-W).

Shaikh Tehsin M.*1 and Jignaben P. Naik2 Click here to download file

Research Article | Published online : 27-Sep-2022