Potency of Trichoderma Aureoviride UPM 09 and Fusarium Equiseti UPM 09 in the Pretreatment and Hydrolysis of Lignocelluolosic Biomass

Two new strains of fungi, namely, Trichoderma aureoviride UPM 09 and Fusarium equiseti UPM 09 were isolated from elephant dung and identified morphologically and through the use of molecular assay.Their genomic DNA was extracted using Epicenter kit ® .PCR amplification of their genomic DNA was successfully conducted with BIOMETRA Tpersonal/Tprofessional Thermocycler (Germany) using ITS-1 forward primer (5' TCC GTA GGT GAA CCT GCG G3') and the ITS-4 reverse primer (5' GCT GCG TTC TTC TTG ATC GAT GC 3').The sequences of the fungal strains were deposited in the NCBI (USA) Gen Bank Database and were assigned accession numbers (in parenthesis) and were identified as Trichoderma aureoviride strain UPM 09 (JN811063) and Fusarium equiseti strain UPM 09 (JN811061).The two fungal strains individually and in consortium were then used for the pretreatment of rice husk (RH), rubber wood saw dust (RW) and oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) using solid state cultivation (SSC) and submerged cultivation (SMC).The amount of glucose, reducing sugars and protein from the pretreated lignocellulose biomass was determined using glucose analyzer, DNS reagent and Biorad assay, respectively.The result of this study, therefore, shows that native fungi possess potentials for use in the pretreatment of lignocelluloses biomass.