IMR Press / FBE / Volume 16 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbe1601005
Open Access Review
Approaches for Producing Fungal Cellulases Through Submerged Fermentation
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1 Microbiology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA
2 Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
*Correspondence: demirci@psu.edu (Ali Demirci)
These authors contributed equally.
Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2024, 16(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbe1601005
Submitted: 5 October 2023 | Revised: 22 November 2023 | Accepted: 28 November 2023 | Published: 31 January 2024
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Fungal cellulases are the most sought-after biological molecules produced from microbial sources in the last four decades. Owing to their emerging applications in the bioenergy industry for hydrolyzing cellulose, for which they are the most abundant source on this planet, research trends are shifting heavily toward adapting to submerged fermentation. However, filamentous fungal species, which are efficient cellulase producers, are well-adapted to low-moisture solid support as the substrate, such as in nature. Therefore, various fermentation strategies are currently being investigated to adapt them to submerged fermentation for large and high-quality production of cellulases. Emerging research trends, such as the use of inexpensive feedstocks, nutrient and/or culture optimization, innovative bioreactor designs, microparticle-assisted fungal growth, and innovative genetic engineering approaches, are some of the recent efforts by researchers to exploit the full potential of these biological molecules. This review discusses some of these strategies and their success rates in various research conditions. In addition, specific focus was provided to both increasing the market value of cellulases and the innovative strategies required to enhance their production on an industrial scale.

Keywords
cellulase
fungal cellulases
feedstock
Distillers' Dried Grains with Soluble (DDGS)
biofilm reactors
culture optimization
Aspergillus
Trichoderma
Funding
#PEN04850/USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hatch Appropriations
Figures
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