Quantitative Assessment of Hydrolytic Potentials of Fungal Isolates from Crude Oil Impacted Soil Ecosystem in Varied Media Formulations

Abstract

Background of the Study: A quantitative assessment of different enzymes that produce the best of hydrolyses of starch, skim milk, carboxymathlcellulose (CMC) and groundnut oil which were further assessed for the production of extracellular enzyme.  Aim: The study aimed at assessing some of the fungal isolates for their abilities to produce the following hydrolytic enzymes; amylase, protease, cellulase and lipase using different medium. Material and Methods:  About 19 fungal species associated with crude oil impacted soil ecosystem. Soil parameters taken were pH, organic matter, water holding capacity and moisture content. Analysis of variance were used to test the effects at statistical significance of P ≤ 0. 05 among the treatments and tukey post hoc tests were used to rank the means. Results: A. fumigatus, A. niger, A.terreus and Basipetospora has the highest frequency of occurrence. A. fumigatus 2 has the highest amylase activity (80mm) while A. clavatus recorded the least (10mm) amylotic activity. A. fumigatus 2 recorded the highest hydrolytic zone of 66.67 mm, followed by A. fumigatus 3 (65 mm) and Curvularialunata which recorded 60mm, respectively. It was revealed that pH of polluted soil sample from the three plots were more acidic than the control (non-polluted soil) 4.81 and 5.72 for plot 1, 5.58 and 6.08 for plot 2 and 5.15 and 6.57 for plot 3 respectively. The water holding capacity, organic matter and moisture content in the polluted soil ranged from 15.02-17.27%, 7.34-8.99 mgkg-1 and 1.23-4.60%, respectively. Conclusion: It was concluded that aspergillus species exhibited maximum hydrolytic potentials of the fungal isolates using different media formulations and these results could provide basic data for further investigations on molecular characterization of fungal extracellular enzymes.