Abstract

The study was undertaken to enhance the production of b-galactosidase using five organic nitrogen sources with wheat bran as a substrate under solid state fermentation. The microbial source Aspergillus niger and its DG-resistant mutant that were grown in medium with initial pH of 5.5 in 250 ml flasks at 30°C for 144 h and sample was harvested after every 24 h and analysed for substrate consumption, cell mass formation and enzyme production. All the nitrogen sources, ammonium sulphate, corn steep liquor, diammonium phosphate, fish meal and urea showed significant results. However, higher values of enzyme activity of 168.0 and 371.15 IU/l/h, parent and mutant, respectively, was obtained from sample in which corn steep liquor was used as a nitrogen source as compared to control (73.1 and 176.3 IU/l/h in parent and mutant, respectively). The effect of nitrogen sources was also found significant in both the organisms but higher in mutant organism (2.2 fold). It is concluded that enzyme production enhanced 2.7 fold by use of suitable production medium under optimum cultural conditions and that the mutant derivative of A. niger can be exploited for hyper production of this enzyme.

Key words: Aspergillus niger, wheat bran, corn steep liquor, b-galactosidase.

Abbreviation

DG, Deoxyglucose; p-NPG, p-nitrophenyl β-D-galactopyranoside;PDA, potato-dextrose agar media; SSF, solid-state fermentation; CLS, corn steep liquor; DAP, diammonium phosphate; BSA, bovine serum albumin; LSD, least significant difference; β –gal, β- galactopyranoside.