Authors : Godliving Mtui and Yoshitoshi Nakamura
Abstract: Marine fungus Phlebia chrysocreas was isolated from decomposing mangrove leaves in Western Indian Ocean cost and cultured in the laboratory. Protein content and lignocellulosic enzyme activities were measured by photometric methods. Desalted and size-separated enzyme filtrates were resolved by sodium Docecyl Sulphate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Isoelectric Focusing (IEF). The fungal filtrate had maximum Lignin Peroxidase (LiP), Manganese Peroxidase (MnP) and Laccase (Lac), activities of 45, 37 and 11 U mL 1, respectively. P. chrysocreas, showed effective (92-100%) decolorization of synthetic azo dyes (Azure-B, Poly-B and Poly-R) in liquid cultures and completely decolorized textile wastewater in immobilized cultures. The LiP and MnP from P. chrysocreas purified by gel filtration chromatography revealed it to have molecular weights of 46 kDa and 47 kDa and isoelectric points of 4.0 and 3.8, respectively. Purified fractions had optimal reaction rates at temperature of 30�C for both LiP and MnP while optimal pH for LiP and MnP were 4.5 and 5.0, respectively. The study confirmed extracellular enzymes from P. chrysocreas to be potential degraders of organic pollutants and showed that facultative marine fungi that live under harsh seawater conditions are suitable for bioremediation of recalcitrant compounds.
Godliving Mtui and Yoshitoshi Nakamura , 2007. Characterization of Lignocellulosic Enzymes from White-rot Fungus Phlebia chrysocreas Isolated from a Marine Habitat . Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2: 1501-1508.