SCREENING AND SELECTION OF WHITE ROT FUNGI FOR BIOLOGICAL DELIGNIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL RESIDUES

ABSTRACT Rapid industrialization and population explosion are some of the major causes which has depleted and polluted the natural resources like never before. The large availability of agricultural and agro industrial residues makes it possible to use these materials for energy applications and as chemical feedstock . The major steps in the conversion system are pre-treatment and enzymatic saccharification, to convert into fermentable sugars. Delignification is necessary since the presence of lignin makes the residue more resistant to enzymatic attack. Cellulose is available in great abundance in agricultural crop residues and forestry wastes, and offers a great scope for bioconversion. Among the biological delignification methods white-rot fungi belonging to the class Basidiomycetes are mainly used. In the present study 20 known white rot fungi were used for screening using bagasse, rice straw and wheat straw. Out of which five cultures i.e. Phanerochaetes chrysosporium, Ganoderma applanatum, Lenzites adusta , Lenzites acuta and Dadela flavida were found significant in lignin removal. Preferential substrate for all selected white rot fungi are bagasse in comparison to rice straw and wheat straw. Phanerochaetes chrysosporium showed maximum delignification upto 40% among all the tested isolates