Innovative Consortia of Micro and Macro Fungal Systems: Cellulolytic Enzyme Production from Groundnut Shell Biomass and Supportive Structural Analysis

Renewable biomass-derived fuels are essential to meet the blend mandates and the sustainability goals. In our first-to-date study, we investigated individual and synergistic consortia of fungal cultures comprising Pycnoporous sanguineus (PS) in combination with Aspergillus oryzae (AO) and Trichoderma harzianum (TH) for production of cellulolytic enzymes using groundnut shell under solid state and submerged liquid fermentation conditions. The innovative consortia closely align with the microbial ecosystems found in nature; consequently, we anticipate a potent and effective cellulolytic enzyme system, which maximises the breakdown of biomass polymers to sugars. Under ternary combination of cultures, cellulase production was highest at 123.0 ± 1 FPU/gds; β-glucosidase production at 875.6 ± 26.4 IU/g dry substrate (gds); and CMCase at 474.95 ± 45.5 IU/gds. β-glucosidase production was highest on the 2nd day at 987.03 ± 64.2 IU/gds while CMCase peaked at 514.97 ± 21.4 IU/gds on 2nd day for PS, maximum cellulase enzyme production was observed on the 6th day at 192.2 ± 0.96 FPU/gds (AO + PS). Present work showed that synergistic combination of fungal cultures for releasing balanced enzyme activities that can efficiently saccharify biomass, such as groundnut shell to sugars, which can subsequently be fermented to various bioproducts and biomaterial monomers. Elaborate characterization studies of enzyme treated groundnut shell revealed prominent physicochemical changes in the hydrolysate, which indicates the changes in biomass are due to the enzymatic action and the growth effects of the consortia; thereby, leading to promising applications for the microbial fortified biomass.