Effect of Different Pretreatment of Sugar Cane Bagasse on Cellulase and Xylanases Production by the Mutant Penicillium echinulatum 9A02S1 Grown in Submerged Culture

The main limitation to the industrial scale hydrolysis of cellulose is the cost of cellulase production. This study evaluated cellulase and xylanase enzyme production by the cellulolytic mutant Penicillium echinulatum 9A02S1 using pretreated sugar cane bagasse as a carbon source. Most cultures grown with pretreated bagasse showed similar enzymatic activities to or higher enzymatic activities than cultures grown with cellulose or untreated sugar cane bagasse. Higher filter paper activity (1.253 ± 0.147 U·mL−1) was detected in the medium on the sixth day of cultivation when bagasse samples were pretreated with sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, and anthraquinone. Endoglucanase enzyme production was also enhanced by pretreatment of the bagasse. Nine cultures grown with bagasse possessed higher β-glucosidase activities on the sixth day than the culture grown with cellulose. The highest xylanase activity was observed in cultures with cellulose and with untreated sugar cane bagasse. These results indicate that pretreated sugar cane bagasse may be able to serve as a partial or total replacement for cellulose in submerged fermentation for cellulase production using P. echinulatum, which could potentially reduce future production costs of enzymatic complexes capable of hydrolyzing lignocellulosic residues to form fermented syrups.