Cellulolytic fungi isolated from wood shavings

Three species of fungi namely Fusarium roseum USDB 0005, Curvularia lunata var. aeria USDB 0006 and Trichoderma hamatum USDB 0008, and a sterile isolate were found growing on wood shavings. Both F. roseum USDB 0005 and C. lunata var. aeria USDB 0006 and the sterile isolate were weakly cellulolytic while T. hamatum USDB 0008 was strongly cellulolytic. Enzyme assays showed that T. hamatum USDB 0008 produced all the three components (exoglucanase, endoglucanase and B-glucosidase) of the cellulase complex. The enzymatic activity of this strain is compared to that of cellulolytic strains isolated from other wood sources.