Laccase production in a psychrotolerant Eutypella under varying temperature and pH conditions

Kusum Dhakar & Anita Pandey

Sydowia 72: 57-63

Published online on February 4th, 2020

A psychrotolerant ascomycete was isolated from a patch of Salix trees that were observed growing in association with Scleroderma fruiting bodies, in a Himalayan location under mountain ecosystem. The association developed among the three components appeared to have a strong positive effect towards the ecological processes under the mountain ecosystem. The ascomycete had a white colony on Potato Dextrose Agar at 25 ºC and was able to tolerate temperatures between 4 to 35 °C (opt. 25 °C) and pH 3.0 to 14.0 (opt. 5–7). It exhibited laccase activity at a wide range of temperature and pH. The optimum temperature and pH for laccase production were recorded with 35 °C and pH 5–11, respectively. Ethanol was found to be the best enhancer among the five test organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, iso-propanol and acetone) used in 1.0 % and 2.0 % (v/v) concentration for laccase production. It enhanced laccase production up to 8.0 fold at 1.0 % concentration on 15th day of incubation. n-Propanol was also observed as second best in enhancing the laccase production approximately up to 5.0 fold at 2.0 % of concentration on 15th day of incubation.

Keywords: Fungal laccase, cold adapted fungi, Eutypella, Himalaya.

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