Preliminary study on morphological diversity of Aspergillus niger strains grown on various agri - waste in relation to enzyme production

Abstract

The present investigation was aimed to observe the correlation of morphology of various isolates of Aspergillus niger on the production of Polygalacturonase (PG) and Pectin Methyl Esterase (PME) with the concept to develop a screening procedure for high enzyme producing strains of Aspergillus niger grown on agri waste. The strains were isolated from orange peel, tamarind seed powder, groundnut, carrot, pomegranate peel and apple baggasse, soil, waste water and bread. The maximum enzyme activity (PG: 2.20±0.05μmoles/ml/min & PME: 0.73±0.08μmoles/ ml/min) was observed with the smallest spore size of Aspergillus niger obtained from orange peel (5.49±2.56μm). However, no correlation of conidiophore size, height of conidial stalk on pectinase production was noted. There is no report found on the level of pectinases in strain of Aspergillus niger grown on tamarind seed powder which showed considerable amount of pectinases in present study. © 2011 Sharma NR, et al.