SCREENING FOR FUNGI THAT HAVE HIGH LIPOLYTIC AND ACIDOLYTIC ACTIVITIES IN BIOMASS SUPPORT PARTICLES

Extensive screening for cell-bound lipase-producing filamentous fungi suitable for immobilization in biomass support particles (BSPs) was do ne, A total of 91 fungi were assayed for their lipolytic activity afte r cultivation and immobilization in BSPs, In the cultivation, polypept on and oleic acid were used as an organic nitrogen source and a lipase inducer, respectively. Several species, such as Rhizopus species and Rhizomucor miehei, showed higher cell-bound lipolytic activity than th at of Rhizopus chinensis, which is known to have considerable high cel l-bound lipolytic activity from previous work, For two strains of fung i (Rhizopus stolonifer, Rhizomucor miehei), the cell-bound lipolytic a ctivities of cells immobilized in BSPs did not show strong dependence on polypepton concentration (10-60 g/liter), while the extracellular l ipolytic activities in the culture liquid increased with the increase in the polypepton concentration, Thirteen fungi that showed high cell- bound lipolytic activities were examined with respect to their acidoly tic activities using fish oil and caprylic acid in n-hexane, There was a roughly proportional relationship between lipolytic and acidolytic activities (the linear correlation coefficient, R, was 0.63), As the m ost patent fungus having the highest cell-bound acidolytic activity in BSP, Rhizomucor miehei IFO 9740 was selected.