Isolation and Identification of Thermophilic Cellulolytic Fungi

Indonesia has a substantial amount of cellulosic waste from the agricultural industry that can be further utilized by involving microorganisms capable of producing cellulase enzymes.These cellulase-producing microorganisms can be obtained through isolation and identification from samples sourced from compost of various leaves.The shift in Earth's temperature due to global warming demands a change in fermentation conditions to a thermophilic fermentation state.Therefore, this research aims to obtain thermophilic cellulolytic fungal isolates.In this study, the isolation process involved enrichment in CY broth media and isolation on PDA media with incubation at 45°C.The obtained isolates were tested for their cellulolytic ability on Cellulose Agar media at 45°C.Subsequently, isolates showing positive cellulolytic activity were identified to the species level.The initial isolation resulted in 13 isolates, and after a selection process, 4 thermophilic cellulolytic isolates were obtained.The identification results showed that these isolates were Rhizopus oligosporus (KDK2, KR1.b, and KR1tb) and Aspergillus terreus (KDK3).