Abstract

M. Akram Kashmiri, Ahmad Adnan* and Beenish Waseem Butt

A new strain of lipolytic Trichoderma viride was isolated from the soil on a selective medium that contained olive oil as the only source of carbon and energy. The isolated strain was cultivated for lipase production in shake flasks at 30???1 oC and the fermentation pattern was studied. The maximum extracellular lipase activity of 7.3 U/mL and the maximum intracellular activity of 320 U/g mycelium were noted after 48 h. Although maximum fungal biomass was present at 13.6 g/L at 60 h but highest specific growth rate was observed between 6 and 18 h. The extracellular lipase present in the broth was purified 134-folds with an overall yield of 46% through purification procedure of ammonium sulphate precipitation, ion exchange and gel permeation chromatography. The Km value of the purified enzyme for triolein hydrolysis was found to be 1.229 m.mole/L.