Twenty four fungal species were screened for their ability to produce alkaline L-methioninase on methionine-glucose liquid medium. Aspergillus ustus AUMC 10151 displayed the highest yield of enzyme (10.8 U/mg protein), followed by A. ochraceus and Fusarium proliferatum. Upon optimization of the submerged fermentation (SmF)conditions, the maximum enzyme yield (18.23 U/mg protein) was obtained on a medium containing L-methionine (0.5%), sucrose (0.95%), KH2PO4 (0.1%) and 175 rpm. Seven agro-industrial by-products were screened as substrates for L-methioninase production under solid-state fermentation (SSF). Wheat bran resulted 38.1 U/mg protein, followed by rice bran (27.6 U/mg protein) and soya bean meal (26.6 U/mg protein). Maximum alkaline L-methioninase (99.56U/mg protein) was achieved at initial moisture content of 71.5%, inoculum size of 2.0 mL of spore suspension, initial pH 8.5, incubation period eight days at 30°C and supplementation of the salt basal medium with pyridoxine(100 μg/mL) and beet molasses (20% v/v). The productivity of L-methioninase by A. ustus under SSF was higher than that of SmF about 5.45 fold under optimum conditions.

Abstract A thermohalophilic fungus, Aspergillus terreus AUMC 10138, isolated from the Wadi El-Natrun soda lakes in northern Egypt was exposed successively to gamma and UV-radiation (physical mutagens) and ethyl methan-sulfonate (EMS; chemical mutagen) to enhance alkaline cellulase production under solid state fermentation (SSF) conditions. The effects of different carbon sources, initial moisture, incubation temperature, initial pH, incubation period, inoculum levels and different concentrations of NaCl on production of alkaline filter paper activity (FPase), carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) and β-glucosidase by the wild-type and mutant strains of A. terreus were evaluated under SSF. The optimum conditions for maximum production of FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase were found to be the corn stover: moisture ratio of 1:3(w/v), temperature 45 °C, pH range, 9.0–11.0, and fermentation for 4, 4 and 7 day, respectively. Inoculum levels of 30% for β-glucosidase and 40% for FPase, CMCase gave the higher cellulase production by the wild-type and mutant strains, respectively. Higher production of all three enzymes was obtained at a 5% NaCl. Under the optimized conditions, the mutant strain A. terreus M-17 produced FPase (729 U/g), CMCase (1,783 U/g), and β-glucosidase (342 U/g), which is, 1.85, 1.97 and 2.31-fold higher than the wild-type strain. Our results confirmed that mutant strain M-17 could be a promising alkaline cellulase enzyme producer employing lignocellulosics especially corn stover.