Isolation and Screening of Industrially Important Fungi from the Soils of Western Ghats of Agumbe and Koppa, Karnataka, India

The present study is an attempt to isolate the fungi from the unexplored soils of Western Ghats and screen them for the production of some very important hydrolytic enzymes such as amylase, cellulose, CMCase, protease, lipase and pigment production. In this work, more than 200 fungal isolates were isolated from the forest soil were screened for the production of extracellular enzymes, identification of the screened isolates and secondary screening for amylase production was done. A total of 167 isolates were characterized, in them some up to species level. Aspergillus, Penicillium, Trichoderma and Cladosporium were predominated. A total of 14 isolates were selected for the secondary screening for amylase production. Aspergillus isolate 199 and Aspergillus isolate 43 produced more protein (169±07 and 160±04ig) respectively. Amylase assay also revealed greater activities (4.98±0.06 and 4.93± 0.07i moles/ ml) in Aspergillus isolate 199 and Aspergillus isolate 43 respectively.