Cellulase end xylanase activity of fungi in a collection isolated from thesouthern Caucasus

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.