(Corporación Universitaria Lasallista, 2012-08-21) Gutiérrez Ramírez, Luz Adriana; Pérez Bran, Juan Alejandro; Uribe Londoño, Mario Alberto
Introduction: Cellulose is the most common
polysaccharide in nature. The organisms able
to degrade it are mainly fungi and bacteria,
known for their ability to produce not only
cellulose enzymes, but also amylases, proteases
and peptidases, among others, which allow
them to recycle the organic material back to
the soil. Cellulase hydrolysis takes place by an
enzyme complex called cellulases, basically
made up by three enzymes: endoglucanase,
exoglucanase and β-glucosidases.
Objective: Given their importance in industry,
in this research it is proposed a characterization
of native strains of fungi isolated from several
substrates, which were determined as Aspergillus
niger, Cladosporiumherbarum and Trichoderma
reesei, all of them with cellulolytic activity.
Materials and methods: This activity
was determined by measuring the
production of β-exoglucanase,
β-endoglucanase and β-glucosidase.
Results: Cladosporiumherbarum had the
highest β-exoglucanase level, 0.0554 UI/
ml; Aspergillus niger demonstrated a high
β-endoglucanase´s production, 0.02463UI/
ml, and Trichoderma reesei had the best
β-glucosidase activity, with 0.000138UI/ml. The
latter is the fungus with the best cellulolytic activity.
