SCREENING, ISOLATION, AND PRODUCTION OF FUNGAL LACCASE FROM SAW MILL SOIL OF OSMANABAD.

Abstract

The rainforest and wood decaying habitats are the main sources for the several laccase producers, which include plant, bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. Among these, several fungal species having laccase producing ability, which mainly includes wood rooting fungi that are often associated with lignin peroxidase or manganese dependent peroxidase or both. In view of this, we screened the natural habitats like saw mill soil and nearby places of Osmanabad district of Maharashtra for isolation of potential fungal species having laccase producing abilities. A total 45 fungal strains were isolated and screened for laccase production on solid media like Czapak dox agar medium containing guaiacol, tannic acid, bromophenol blue, and ABTS. Out of that 24 isolates showed positive results and among these S19 was found to be a potent laccase producing ability. The S19 fungus sp. subcultured on Czapak dox agar slant and screened for laccase enzyme production on solid state fermentation using wheat bran. In conclusion, we isolated the most potent laccase producing S19 fungus sp. from local natural habitats. A total 11.35 U/L of laccase enzyme obtained under optimized solid state fermentation. The enzyme may find potential applications in degradation of xenobiotics, decolourization of dyes, pulp and paper industries, depolymerisation of lignin, pigment degradation, and several other industrial processes.