Fig. 5.

Primary validation of cellulase production performance by isolates from five iterative ARTP mutagenesis and screening. a Validation rates. They were calculated as the percentage of isolates with higher cellulase production and yield compared to the starting strain among the tested isolates sorted from droplets. Relative cellulase production and yield data were from Fig. 5b to 5f. b First round of mutagenesis and screening. The wild-type cellulase-producing strain SHY169 was used as a starting strain. c Second round. d Third round. e Fourth round. f Fifth round. In c to f, the best cellulase producer was selected from the last round to be a starting strain for the next round. About thirty clones were randomly picked from the recovery plates, and their cellulase production was evaluated by flask fermentation. Production is measured in units of cellulase activity per volume and the yield is cellulase activity per 1 OD₆₀₀ unit of cells. Data were normalized to the starting strain of each round. The solid and dashed lines indicate the thresholds of strain selection for production and yield, respectively. Top five cellulase hyperproducers from each round were indicated by red stars