Production of cellulase enzyme from some local fungal isolates and the effect of some culture conditions

Abstract: Ten local strains of fungi were isolated and identified. these fungi are belong to the following genera: Aspergillus niger, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium sp, Rhizopus sp, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani, Chaetomium sp, Macrophomina sp., Cladosporium sp. and Aspergillus flavus, isolated from the soil of Mosul University. The ability of isolated fungi to cellulase production in a solid media was investigated. A quantitative test using liquid media was used to determine the best effective isolate for cellulase production. determine A. niger gave the highest production of cellulase (8.12) unit/ml. Carboxymethyl cellulose as a carbon source gave highest production of cellulase (8.15) unit/ml. The best concentration of the carbon source was (12) gm/L which gave highest production of enzyme (8.67) unit/ml. The optimum temperature gave the highest production of cellulase (8.36) unit/ml was 30CO. The pH 5.5 considered as the optimum one for enzyme production, as it gave (9.22) unit/ml.