Table 6.
Cellulolytic activity of the 16 fungal isolates identified in this study associated with the subterranean termite Reticulitermes grassei.
| Fungal Species | Isolate 1 | Radial Growth (mm day−1) 2 | Enzymatic Index 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspergillus flavus | MZC-17 | 6.6 ± 0.58 e | 1.08 ± 0.041 cd |
| MZC-20 | 4.5 ± 0.01 f | 1.11 ± 0.019 c | |
| Aspergillus niger | MZC-14 | 5.1 ± 0.25 f | 1.06 ± 0.006 cd |
| MZC-18 | 5.0 ± 0.12 f | 1.00 ± 0.001 e | |
| Chaetomium globosum | MZC-2 | 3.3 ± 0.17 g | 1.00 ± 0.001 e |
| MZC-9 | 3.6 ± 0.11 g | 1.00 ± 0.001 e | |
| Doratomyces stemonitis | MZC-16 | 2.3 ± 0.08 h | 1.05 ± 0.052 d |
| Mucor circinelloides | MZC-5 | 7.3 ± 0.87 de | 1.00 ± 0.001 e |
| MZC-23 | 9.0 ± 0.36 b | 1.00 ± 0.001 e | |
| Mucor fragilis | MZC-1 | 7.3 ± 0.22 de | 1.00 ± 0.001 e |
| Penicillium chrysogenum | MCZ-0 4 | 1.7 ± 0.02 h | 1.50 ± 0.011 a |
| Penicillium citrinum | MZC-21 | 1.6 ± 0.17 h | 1.34 ± 0.020 b |
| Trichoderma asperellum | MZC-8 | 7.5 ± 0.31 cd | 1.0 ± 0.001 e |
| MZC-10 | 8.3 ± 0.07 bc | 1.0 ± 0.001 e | |
| MZC-11 | 8.5 ± 0.22 b | 1.0 ± 0.001 e | |
| MZC-24 | 7.5 ± 0.15 cd | 1.0 ± 0.001 e | |
| Trichoderma longibrachiatum | MZC-4 | 10.9 ± 0.15 a | 1.09 ± 0.008 cd |
1 MZC: Collection of Microbiology and Zoology Departments of UCO of cellulolytic microorganisms. 2 Data represent the average of two independent sets (experiments) of three replicated Petri dishes per isolate, each one ± standard error of the means. Means in a column followed by the same letter do not differ significantly according to protected Tukey’s HSD test at p = 0.05 [39]. 3 Enzymatic index (EI) was calculated as the ratio between the diameter of the hydrolysis halo surrounding the colony and the diameter of the colony. The isolates that showed an EI > 1.0 were considered to be potential producers of cellulases. 4 Positive control.