Screening of cellulose degrading fungi for the improvement of salty soil (Thai)

Abstract

Cellulose degrading fungi were isolated from 17 salt affected soil samples. There were 27 and 16 fungal isolates found which were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) containing 5% and 10% sodium chloride. The ability of fungal isolates to degrade carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was investigated on CMC agar medium. Sixteen and eight fungal isolates displayed their ability to degrade CMC on the medium that contained 5 and 10 percent of sodium chloride, respectively. Examining cellulase production in mineral salts medium containing CMC and 10% sodium chloride revealed that fungal isolate 10aA2 was able to produce the highest cellulase activity at 1.8 U mg^-1 of protein. Hence, fungal isolate 10aA2 could be used in the process of compost making for improvement of salt affected soils.