Isolation, Screening and Identification of Pectinolytic Fungi from the Soil of Decomposed Plant Materials

Pectinases are essential enzymes and command a quarter of all food enzymes sold globally, and are recognised as excellent workhorses in plethora of industries. These enzymes are mainly sourced from animals, microorganisms and plants, with microbes serving as the main sources owing to the quality, quantity, ease of extraction and economic considerations. This research study isolated, screened, and identified five pectinase-producing fungi from the soil of decaying fruits and vegetables. The isolated fungal species were cultured and screened for highest pectinase production using pectinase screening agar medium containing 1% citrus pectin. Four isolates identified as Aspergillus niger, Fusarium species, Trichoderma species and Aspergillus flavus, exhibited very high values of pectinase hydrolysis based on clear zone method, which were 25, 23, 20, and 20 mm for the respective isolates. A secondary pectin hydrolysis screening exercise was conducted afterwards to obtain the highest level of reducing sugars and pectinase released by the isolates. Aspergillus niger, once again, proved to be the best as it recorded maximum reducing sugar of 3.92 mg/mL and pectinase enzyme activity of 36.23 U/mL. Soil have the potential to serve as the primary source of fungal species capable of degrading pectin to release pectinase enzymes, which have numerous applications in the production of pharmaceuticals, food, beverages, animal feed, textiles, detergents, protoplast fusion, pulp and paper and biofuels.