Screening for Lignocellulolytic Fungi From Biowastes Show Fungi with Hyper-Cellulase Producing Capability

Abstract

The decomposition of organic wastes, such as lignocellulosics to release the energy trapped therein has been remarked as one of the most important events of the carbon cycle.  The organisms involved in these processes, if harnessed could be useful bio-resources for the production of value added products, such as cellulase. To screen for these organisms, decomposing waste materials were collected from different places in the environment. Screening was done following established methods. Four fungi species were obtained. These were Aspergillus niger, Fusarium spp, Spadicoides spp and Aspergillus spp. Of all these, Aspergillus niger had the highest (0.085 mg/ml) extracellular cellulase secreting ability, when cultivated on sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose (Na-CMC). All the organisms grew were on sugar cane bagasse (SCB) sore carbon sourced media. These organisms have been implicated in cellulase production previously, while Spadicoides spp has rarely, if at all ever been reported for having high extracellular cellulase secreting ability and is hereby reported for further studies.

Key words: Aspergillus niger, Spadicoides spp, cellulase, Sugar cane bagasse (SCB)