High cellulolytic activities in filamentous fungi isolated from an extreme oligotrophic subterranean environment (Catao cave) in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: De Paula, Caio C. P.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Montoya, Quimi [UNESP], Meirelles, Lucas A. [UNESP], Farinas, Cristiane S., Rodrigues, Andre [UNESP], Seleghim, Mirna H. R.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201920180583; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/196285
• topic: cellulases; fungu's cave; solid state fermentation; submerged fermentation; subterranean environment

Isolation and screening of new fungal strains from extreme and understudied environments. such as caves, is a promising approach to find higher yields enzyme producers. Cellulolytic fungal strains isolated from a Brazilian cave were evaluated for their enzymatic production after submerged (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF). After SmF, three strains were selected for their high enzymatic activities: Aspergillus ustus for endoglucanase (4.76 U/mg), Talaromyces bruneus for beta-glucosidase (11.71 U/mg) and Aspergillus sp. (CBMAI 1926) for total cellulase (1.70 U/mg). After SSF, these strains, showed better yields compared to the reference strain Aspergillus niger 3T5B8. Aspergillus sp. (CBMAI 1926) stood out as a new species that expressed activity of total cellulases (0.10 U/mg) and low protein concentration (0.44 mg/mL). In conclusion, these isolated strains have a more efficient and promising cellulolytic enzyme complex that can be used in fermentation and saccharification processes with a lower protein concentration and a higher enzymatic activity than the reference strain. Therefore, beside the new genetic material characterized, our study highlights the benefits of cave extreme environments exploitation to find new potentially valuable strains.