Strategic screening of filamentous fungi for their production of lignocellulose degrading enzymes

Conference poster, 2014

Filamentous fungi possess a high unexplored potential for production of lignocellulose degrading enzymes. There are a few fungi, such as Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger, which are widely used in industry. But there is a huge interest in discovery of novel and more efficient enzymes, and therefore other fungi should be evaluated. The goal of this study was to strategically screen selected filamentous fungi, which are potentially good producers of lignocellulose degrading enzymes, and to link their genomic information to the experimental data. We picked 9 fungi for which genomic data is available and screened for their growth abilities on cellulose and lignocellulose (steam exploded spruce). The five best performing fungi were chosen for further cultivations for evaluation of their enzyme profiles and enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency. SDS-PAGE showed large differences between the secretomes of the different fungi. For enzyme screening different enzyme assays were designed based on the CAZymes in the genomes of these fungi and the characteristics of the growth substrates. Enzymes produced by the fungi were evaluated for their hydrolytic efficiency on the different substrates. All in all, our experimental approach provided insight into the mechanisms of enzymatic hydrolysis by different filamentous fungi.