Journal of Environmental Biology

Characterization of newly isolated strain Aspergillus fumigatus JCF

from spoiled jackfruit and optimization of cellulase for bioethanol

production using fruit waste

Elsa Cherian¹, M. Dharmendira Kumar²* and G. Baskar¹

¹Department of Biotechnology, St. Joseph's College of Engineering, Chennai-600 119, India

²Department of Applied Science and Technology, Anna University, Chennai-600 025, India

*Corresponding Author E-mail: mdkumar@annauniv.edu

Publication Data

Paper received:

09 September 2014

Revised received:

26 February 2015

Accepted:

07 May 2015

Abstract

Cellulase is a major enzyme which can be used for the production of many important products. A major constraint in cellulase production is the cost of production, so the objective of the present investigation was to increase the yield of cellulase enzyme by using different low cost substrate and subsequently optimize the conditions for production. Nine fungal strains were investigated for cellulase production, which were isolated from agricultural waste. A potential strain for cellulase was selected by Congo red assay.? Aspergillus fumigatus JCF, isolated from spoiled jackfruit, was found to be the most potent cellulase producer from the set of fungal strains isolated. This strain was identified using microscopic examination, ITS gene sequencing and neighbourhood joining method. Cellulase production was carried out in various fruit and vegetable waste and on a detailed analysis it was found that optimum production was obtainted when apple waste was used as substrate. So apple waste was selected as a substrate in the current study. The conditions required for the production of cellulase were optimized statistically, by response surface methodology (RSM). The optimized conditions were found to be 15.79 % of apple waste, 0.27 g l^-1 ammonium sulphate, 6.1 pH and 4.85 days as the incubation period, with optimum cellulase activity of 2.87 IU ml^-1. Enzyme activity of 2.87 IU ml^-1 was further used for the production of bioethanol through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, using apple waste as substrate. A bioethanol concentration of 13.59g l^-1 was obtained in the current study. ???   

 Key words

Apple waste, Aspergillus fumigatus JCF, Cellulase, Fermentation, Gene sequencing, Saccharification

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