Evaluation of white rot fungi for the production of lignin modified enzymes collected from goa forest areas in western ghats, India

White rot fungi is commonly known as wood decaying fungi which grows on moist wood and digests converts it to rot. Rice straw degradation by white rot fungi has potential to increase the digestibility of animal feed and its nutritional value for the production of lignolytic enzymes. Twenty white rot fungal isolates were obtained from wood samples. These fungal isolates were subjected to qualitative screening tests for lignolytic activity on solid media containing several polymeric dyes like poly R-478, Tannic acid, Azure-B, Remazol brilliant blue R. Out of twenty isolates four isolates with appreciable enzyme activity were selected based on the dye decolourisation property. The optimized conditions resulted in high lignin modified enzymes (LME) production with the 745 Uml-1 of Laccase, 265 Uml-1 of MnPase and 142 Uml-1 of Peroxidase within 12 days of incubation, at the pH - 6.5 and 35˚C of temperature. Purification studies were conducted by ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by SDS PAGE analysis in which the molecular weight was determined as 45 kD, 57 kD then HPLC analysis reveals peak at 19 mins at specific wavelength of A280. The present findings revealed the the strain LMCD-2 is an efficient organism for lignolytic enzyme production.