Primary simple assays of cellulose-degrading fungi

Abstract

Some 25 fungi, including at least 14 basidiomycetes, one ascomycete, and five anamorphic fungi were evaluated for their cellulose-degrading abilities in Difco potato dextrose broth or Difco malt extract broth cultures with cellulosic substrates (e.g., filter paper) in plastic Petri dishes. Among them, Peniophora sp. 06-13 and Phlebia sp. 99-335 reduced the dry weights of the whole cultures with these substrates more than the dry weights of the respective original substrates after 30 days of culture, showing definite cellulose degradation. In the cultures with more than 10 test fungi including Pycnoporus coccineus 84-117, such weight losses did not occur. This assay technique for the primary screening for cellulose degrading fungi is simple, inexpensive, reproducible and accurate.

The culturable mycobiota of Flabellia petiolata: First survey of marine fungi associated to a Mediterranean green alga

“…Interestingly, the isolation of species belonging to the genera Peniophora and Schizophyllum from a cellulose substrate, such as F . petiolata , is in line with recent observations that demonstrated the ability of these basidiomycetes to produce cellulolytic enzymes [ 50 , 51 ].…”

Cultivation of a cellulolytic microbial community under continuous flow conditions

“…The filter was then dried at 120°C for 3 hours. Samples were then weighed and the amount of cotton degradation was calculated (Watanabe et al, 2011). At a flow rate of 0.1 ml/min (D = 0.75/hr), samples were taken at day 4, 6, 7, and 8, while at a flow rate of 0.2 ml/min (D = 1.50/hr) samples were taken at day 4, 6, 8 and 10.…”

Study of the degradation patterns of thermophilic fungi from special digested wastewater sludge samples

“…The best nitrogen sources are potassium-nitrate, sodium-nitrate and asparagine (Wagner et al, 2013), while the ammonium-nitrate and sodium-nitrite are poor sources to thermophilic fungi (Chmielewski et al, 2012). The high rate of unsaturated fatty acids is the reason of the resistant cell membrane in thermophilic fungal species (Palatsi et al, 2009;Watanabe et al, 2012). Therefore, the transport processes could work at higher temperature through the cell membrane (Dobolyi et al, 2008;Souza et al, 2013).…”

“…The study of Watanabe et al (2012) described the production system of biofuels by cellulose degradation capacity of fungi. The cellulose degradation is one of the most important parts of the biofuel production.…”

“…The enzymatic degradation of cellulose involves a complex set of enzymes as cellulases: three most relevant classes are endoglucanases, exoglucanases and ß-glucosidases (Souza et al, 2013). Endo and exoglucanases hydrolyze internal ß-1,4 linkages of cellulosic polymers to cellooligosaccharides and cellobiose and that will be hydrolyzed by ß-glucosidases to glucose (Watanabe et al, 2012;Souza et al, 2013). The process needs high cellulose concentration.…”