PHENOL OXIDASES PRODUCTION AND WOOD DEGRADATION BY A THERMOPHILIC FUNGUS THERMOASCUS-AURANTIACUS

The ability of a Brazilian strain of Thermoascus aurantiacus, a thermophilic fungus, to produce extracellular phenol oxidases and to degrade Eucalyptus grandis sawdust was studied. T. aurantiacus was capable of good growth in liquid culture containing 1.5% (w/v) of various lignocellulosic substrates (sugar cane bagasse, rice hulls, and chips and sawdust of E. grandis) plus 5 mg/mL of glucose. When ligno-cellulosic substrates were used, enzymes involved in cellulose and hemicellulose metabolism were stimulated in T. aurantiacus. It was also found that these substrates have an inductive effect on phenol oxidase production. The most effective inducer of phenol oxidase activity was E. grandis sawdust, which led to the production of 0.80 U/mL (o-dianisidine oxidation) on day 12. Low phenol oxidase activity was observed at cultures when only glucose was used. Cultures of T. aurantiacus also exhibited cellobiose-quinone oxidoreductase activity when lignocellulosic materials were used as substrate. However, under our experimental conditions, lignin peroxidase activity was not detected. E. grandis sawdust supplemented with 5 mg/mL of glucose suffered a total weight loss of 6.7% accompanied by 15% lignin loss and 64.4% extractive loss after 21 d incubation with T. aurantiacus.