E. Kvesitadze et al., Cellulase end xylanase activity of fungi in a collection isolated from thesouthern Caucasus, INT BIO BIO, 43(4), 1999, pp. 189-196
Fungi, comprising about 4000 cultures, were collected from different climat
ic zones of the southern Caucasus. Almost all cultures in the collection sh
owed a high potential for degrading basic plant biopolymers such as cellulo
se and hemicellulose. Cultures of Penicillium canescens possessing comparat
ively low cellulase activity in their wild type were treated with ultraviol
et light, which produced genetically stable mutants. Few of them had high x
ylanase and no cellulase activities. More than 6% of all cultures in the co
llection were thermophiles and, from these, 56 cultures with the highest ce
llulase and xylanase activity were selected. It was shown that under two di
fferent thermophilic growth conditions, 40 and 48 degrees C, Allescheria te
rrestris formed two sets of endoglucanases and endoxylanases with different
thermal stabilities. It was also shown that when cultivated on straw, Alle
scheria terrestris grows primarily in its internal part for an extended per
iod of time. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.