Screening of cellulolytic and xylanolytic fungi for enzymes cocktail studies of ganoderma boninense inhibition

Abstract

Ganoderma boninense is a basidiomycetes white rot fungus which causes basal stem rot (BSR), one major disease in oil palm plantation in Malaysia. The objective of the present study was to screen the most potential fungus that has a capability to produce crude xylanase and cellulase to be used as a biological control for Ganoderma boninense. Twenty four different strains of fungi were obtained from the Biorefinery Technology Research Laboratory of Faculty Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor. They were screened for their potential to degrade cellulose and hemicelluloses. The screening of the fungi were based on the diameter of holozones on red color of congo red and the formation of yellow-opaque area on the carboxymethlycellulose(CMC) and xylan agar, respectively. Among these strains, five potential fungi which showed the maximum enzyme activities for endoglucanase (CMCase), filter paper degrading enzyme (FPase), beta-glucosidase, xylanase and reducing sugar were selected to produce enzyme cocktail on untreated oil palm trunk will be further study through its performance in solid state fermentation. The potential enzyme producers from fungi were CT2, Pycnoporus cinnabarinus, EFB1, EFB2 and TG6 that produced 304.04 U/g of CMCase, 13.25 U/g of FPase, 83.15 U/g for ß-glucosidase,523.10 U/g of xylanase and 164.04 U/g of reducing sugar respectively. Cellulase and xylanase cocktail produced from these five fungi were mixed and applied on the Ganoderma boninense at ratio 1:1:1:1:1 were made up to 0.025mL in the culture plates. However, the inhibition of Ganoderma boninense when treated with cellulase and xylanase cocktail was undetected in this study.