Selective Screening Methods for Selecting and Identifying Hyper-Cellulolytic Microbial Mutants; Hyper-Cellulolytic Mutant Microorganisms; and Processes for Their Utilization

摘要

A process for identifying and selecting microorganism strains, e.g., of the Trichoderma reesei species is described. Various hyper-cellulolytic characteristics, as described in greater detail, conducting one or more of various mutation and selection steps in any order or sequence followed by a mutation and selection step for microbial strains with constitutive cellulolytic activity by culturing in this latter step the microbial strains on a general non-enzyme-inducing culture medium and then detecting constitutive mutant microbial strains by overlayering with a culture medium that will detect cellulase and cellobiase activity with the proviso that any further protein synthesis is inhibited is disclosed. The selection process is useful for identifying and selecting microbial strains with the ability to produce various enzymes capable of breaking down various cellulosic and cellobiosic materials into smaller sugar units, e.g., glucose units, which can be subsequently used for the production of alcohol and other organic chemicals in a conventional fermentation process under anaerobic or aerobic conditions. Various novel mutant strains of Trichoderma reesei developed and selected using the approach above and their use in producing enzymes and hydrolysis of cellulosic materials are disclosed. (ERA citation 05:026384)