Molecular Plant Breeding 2016, Vol.7, No.9, 1-16
http:// mpb.biopublisher.ca
1
Review Article
Open Access
Biochemical and Molecular Studies of Various Enzymes Activity in Fungi
Muhammad Ishfaq
1
, Nasir Mahmood
2
, Qurban Ali
3,
, Idrees Ahmad Nasir
3
, Muhammad Saleem
1
1 Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of the Punjab (New campus), Lahore, Pakistan
2 Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
3 Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab (New Campus), Lahore, Pakistan
Corresponding author email:
Molecular Plant Breeding 2016, Vol.7, No.9 doi:
Received: 07 Dec., 2015
Accepted: 15 Jan., 2016
Published: 15 Jan., 2016
Copyright © 2016
This is an open access article published under the terms of Molecular Plant Breeding, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Ali Q., Ishfag M., Mahmood N., Nasir I.A., and Saleem M.. 2016, Biochemical and Molecular Studies of Various Enzymes Activity in Fungi, Molecular
Breeding, 7(9): 1-16 (doi:
Abstract
Fungi are decomposers in most ecosystems and make important contribution to the ecological balance of our world. They
have great industrial importance due to the presence of different enzymes like laccase, superoxide dismutase, cellulases, amylases
and catalase etc. These enzymes performed synthetic and degradative functions. They are physiologically necessary for all of the
living organisms and are universally occur with wide genetic diversity in plants, animals and micro-organisms. Mostly the
micro-organisms are an attractive and efficient source of various enzymes and also owing to have the limited space required for their
cultivation and their ready susceptibility to genetic manipulations. Although the extensive research on various aspects of these
enzymes, there is scarcity of the knowledge about the role that governed the diverse specificity of these enzymes. After deciphering
the secrets about these enzymes would enable us to exploit their use in biotechnology. Fungi have vital roles in biotechnology such as
production of drugs and enzymes. Fungi can be cultured easily and hence they can be used in microbiological, genetic and molecular
research. It is very important to investigate genes and the role of genes that are responsible for the formation of these enzymes. In the
current review described the study of production of laccase, superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme through various fungi, the
activity of enzymes and the genetic diversity of genes involved for the formation of these enzymes.
Keywords
Laccase; Superoxide Dismutase; Cellulases; Amylases; Catalase; Enzymes; Fungi
Introduction
Fungi have been used in modern scientific research
due to their high potential for different enzymes
production based on genomic features. The great
proportion of soil mycoflora represented by saprobic
fungi plays an important roles in decomposition, thus
contribute to the global carbon cycle (Nevalainentics
and Penttila, 2003). Different catabolic activities by
different enzymes enable fungi to colonize on organic
matter and this feature explains the significant use of
filamentous fungi in biotechnology (Kaeberlein et al.,
2002). Filamentous fungi secrete different enzymes in
the growth medium, and most of these enzymes are
hydrolytic in nature and employed in different
industrial processes (Shakuntala et al., 2009). There is
need to characterize fungal strains at molecular level
for efficient enzyme production (Gerd et al., 2006).
Sordaria fimicola (Roberge ex Desm.) Ces. & De Not.,
is an important fungus belonging to Ascomycota.
Sordaria fimicola is a filamentous fungus growing as
extending and branching tubular cells (hyphae) that
generally grow radially with symmetric colony
(Alexopolous et al., 1996; Kavak, 2012). The natural
habitats of
S. fimicola
have been mainly defined
in dung of herbivorous animals (Masunga et al., 2006).
However, it has been isolated from different habitats
including maize stalks (Alma et al., 2000). Colonies of
S. fimicola grow rapidly on Potato Dextrose Agar
(PDA) medium in 7 days at 28 ºC reaching 9 cm in
diameter, from brown to dark brown mycelium with
homothallic perithecia (Jeamjitt, 2007).
The
S. fimicola
strains were first time isolated from
“Evolution Canyon I (EC I)” (Nevo, 1995) located
at mountain Carmel, Israel were included (Figure 1).
The south facing slope (SFS) of EC I has dry and
harsh environment with quite different flora and
fauna as compare to north facing slope (NFS) which
has moist and lush green environment. The age of
EC 1 is almost 3 to 5 million years (Nevo, 1997).
The north and south facing inclines are 100 and 400
