ABSTRACT
Five agricultural wastes and sawmill soil were investigated for fungi capable of producing cellulase. Isolation was carried using serial dilution techniques and isolates were screened for cellulase production on carboxymethyl cellulose-containing agar plates. Copious isolates were further subjected to submerged cultivation for quantitative evaluation of cellulase biosynthesis. Highest fungal load was 6.67±0.33×106 sfu/g (Sawmill soil) and the least was 2.33±0.33×106 sfu/g (yam peels). A total of sixty seven fungi were identified from the samples. The isolates were of fifteen fungal species namely Mucor mucedo, Aspergillus niger, A. repens, A. flavus, A. parasiticus, Articulospora inflata, Gonatobotrys simplex, Gyrothrix circinata, Dendrospora erecta, Penicillium notatum, P. italicum, Varicosporium elodea, Gonatobotryum apicolatum, Mucor racemosus and Rhizopus nigricans. Aspergillus had the highest occurrence (36.11%), while the least occurrence was Varicosporium and Gonatobotryum (2.78%). Highest cellulase activity ratio was exhibited by Aspergillus niger (1.90) and the least by Aspergillus repens (1.04) on plate screening. The highest cellulase producer among selected isolates under submerged growth was Gonatobotrys simplex (1.2143±0.02 U/ml), followed by Aspergillus niger (1.1429±0.01 U/ml) and the least by Aspergillus parasiticus (0.8265±0.01 U/ml). Submerged protein content was highest in Aspergillus niger culture and least in Penicillium notatum. The study has revealed array of cellulytic fungi from agricultural wastes and sawmill soil.