LIGNINOLYTIC ENZYME PRODUCTION AND REMAZOL BRILLIANT BLUE R (RBBR) DECOLORIZATION BY A NEWLY ISOLATED WHITE ROT FUNGUS: BASIDIOMYCOTA SPP. L-168.

Abstract

Recently, extensive research on basidiomycetous fungi has been conducted to isolate new organisms with enormous secretion of ligninolytic enzymes with potential industrial applications. The present study reports the screening of 13 phenol tolerant isolates from 51 rotted wood samples collected from Jalgaon district, Maharashtra (India). The isolates were tested for ligninolytic enzyme production by a two step screening based on phenol tolerance and gallic acid oxidation. Also ability of isolates for Remazol brilliant blue R decolorization was studied. Interestingly, Basidiomycete sp. L-168 showed 98.53% decolorization in 5 days of incubation. The isolate was characterized with respect to its set of extracellular phenol oxidases. Laccase was the only ligninolytic enzyme detected. Neither lignin peroxidase nor manganese peroxidase was detected. Maximum of 507.92 U l^-1 of laccase was produced on 7^th day at 30^oC. This organism appears to be an ideal model for studies of group of fungi that lack LiP and MnP and operate with laccase as the major phenol oxidase. This is first report on isolation of ligninolytic fungi from Jalgaon district.