Distribution of hydrolytic enzymes among native fungi: Aspergillus the pre-dominant genus of hydrolase producer.

Abstract

One hundred and twenty eight fungi isolated from the native environments, including soil, plant, deteriorating distempered-wall and spoiled orange-juice samples and 32 isolates obtained from the culture collections were screened for hydrolytic enzyme production. A large proportion (71.25%) of fungal strains belonged to the genus Aspergillus followed by genera Alternaria, Fusarium, Penicillium, Paecilomyces, Basidiomyces, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Rhizocotonia, Trichoderma, Macrophomina, Botryodiplodia, Monilia, Gliocladium and Rhizopus. These strains were sorted on the basis of their hydrolytic potential of starch, cellulose, protein, xylan and pectin. Some selected strains that produce high levels of enzymes, grown in shake-flask and amylase, cellulase, protease, xylanase and pectinase were quantitatively evaluated. Members of the genus Aspergillus appeared to exhibit the greatest diversity in terms of high levels of all the investigated hydrolases.