Proteomic characterization and schizophyllan production by Schizophyllum commune ISTL04 cultured on Leucaena leucocephala wood under submerged fermentation

In this study Schizophyllum commune ISTL04 was grown on Leucaena leucocephala wood (LLW) for secretome analysis and schizophyllan production. There is no report on extracellular protein profile and schizophyllan production on woody biomass by this fungus under submerged fermentation conditions. Leucaena leucocephala, a promising bioenergy crop having high holocellulose content was used as substrate without pretreatment. The maximum sugar, extracellular protein and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production during fermentation was found to be 8.53 ± 0.07 mg mL−1, 391 ± 7.51 mg L−1 and 4.2 ± 0.1 g L−1 or 0.21 g g−1 LLW on day 18 respectively. The secretome profile was dominated by glycoside hydrolases followed by carbohydrate esterase and other oxidative enzymes. EPS was further characterized by FTIR and GC-MS for functional group, monomer composition and linkage analysis and was identified as schizophyllan. The result indicated that LLW can be utilized as a low cost substrate for enzyme cocktail and schizophyllan production.