Abstract

SCREENING OF SOME ASPERGILLUS SPECIES FOR THEIR CELLULASE PRODUCING ABILITY FROM THE SOIL

Kishan Lal Tiwari¹ and *Ayesha Fatima Rizvi¹

Abstract

Cellulose is major constituent of all plant materials. Cellulose structure is very hard and its degradation is carried out in nature by cellulase enzyme. Microorganisms are well known recognize for their enzymes producing ability. Cellulolytic enzymes are synthesized by number of fungi. Present work is based on screening of potential cellulase producing Aspergillus species from soil. Fifteen Aspergillus species were isolated from soil. They are further identified and subjected to plate assay for cellulase activity out of these five Aspergillus species Aspergillus niger, A. versicolor, A. luchensis, A. terreus, and A. nidulans were found to produced cellulase activity and give positive results. Intracellular and extracellular proteins were estimated from all five selected species of Aspergillus. Among all the five species, Aspergillus nidulans exhibited highest level of extracellular protein (0.682 mg/ml). Lowest level of protein was recorded in A. terreus (0.033 mg/ml). Quantitative estimation of cellulase was performed on intracellular and extracellular crude extract in all selected species of Aspergillus. Maximum and minimum intracellular cellulase activity was recorded in Aspergillus niger (1.87 U/L) and A. versicolor (1.42 U/L). The extracellular cellulase was found to be high in A. terreus (1.67 U/L) and lowest in A. nidulans (0.35 U/L).

Keywords: Cellulose, Aspergillus, Cellulase, Screening.