ABSTRACT
Cellulases are a group of enzymes that catalyzes the hydrolysis of cellulose by breaking the 1, 4-β-glycosidic bonds in between the cellulose chain of lignocellulosic biomass the most abundant natural biopolymer on earth to smaller sugar components such as glucose subunits which can be microbially fermented to alcohol for biofuel production. The enzyme cellulases are generally produced by several types of microorganisms including bacteria and fungi. Cellulase is expensive and contributes only 50% to the overall cost of hydrolysis during biofuel production. Besides, this enzyme has wide application in food, brewery, wine, animal feed textile, laundry, paper, and pulp industries. In the recent years, there has been much research aimed at obtaining new microorganisms capable of producing cellulase enzymes with higher specific activities and greater efficiency. Keeping these in view, in, the present study eleven cellulolytic fungi were isolated from the lignocellulose waste containing soil samples collected from four different areas of Bhubaneswar, Odisha using fungal basal medium containing 1% CM cellulose following dilution plate techniques. These fungi were screened for their CM Case and FPase activity. A fungal strain was found to exhibit high cellulase activity was identified as Aspergillus fumigatus. Further in silico studies like docking was undertaken to analyse the activity of cellulase enzyme.
