Bioprospection of fungi lipase from marine sediment of Ceará coast (Northeastern Brazil)

This work reports the bioprospecting lipase activity of fungi isolated from marine sediments of the coast of Ceará state in northeastern Brazil. Five fungi strains were isolated from marine sediments (SM1 - SM5), collected at Barra do Ceará, Fortaleza-CE. They were subjected to the test of lipolytic activity by gel diffusion method, using olive oil and tributyrin as lipase-specific and esterase-specific substrate respectively. Rhodamine B was employed as colorimetric reagent. Of the five tested fungi strains, three (SM1, SM2, and SM3) were specifically positive for the lipase activity (LA), with moderate to high LA (2.4<LA≤3.8). Among these, one (SM2) showed high lipase activity, with a LA value equal to 3.8, quite similar to the positive control (Aspergillus niger). Isolates were identified according to their morphological characteristics and classified as Paecilomyces sp. (SM1), Aspergillus sp. (SM2) and Aspergillus flavus (SM3)