Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Microbiological Research 1 4 2013 11 08 A Novel Cellulase from an Endophyte, Penicillium Sp. NFCCI 2862 84 91 EN Saima Syed Syed Riyaz-Ul-Hassan Sarojini Johri Microbial Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Canal Road, Jammu Tawi, India AJMR2013144 10.12691/ajmr-1-4-4 2013 10 13 2013 11 06 2013 11 08 An endophytic fungus identified as Penicillium sp. CPF2 (NFCCI 2862) was used to evaluate the activity of its cellulolytic enzymes to degrade pretreated sugarcane bagasse and characterize the cellulase enzymes. Different substrates were evaluated for optimum cellulase production by CPF2. The best activities for FPase (1.2 IU/ml), endocellulase (19 IU/ml), xylanase (40 IU/ml) and β-glucosidase (2.8 IU/ml) with a protein content of 0.86 mg/ml were observed when cellulose (1.5 % w/v) was used in combination with peptone (0.2 % w/v) in the growth medium. Optimum temperature and pH for the extracellular cellulase production were 28°C and 5.5, respectively. Furthermore the hydrolysis performance of Penicillium cellulase was compared with Trichoderma reesei cellulase (celluclast). Concentrated filtrate (~20 fold) from the fermented broth of CPF2 was able to bring about > 90 % and >63 % hydrolysis of cellulose and steam exploded bagasse (SEB) respectively at 5 % (w/v) substrate concentration in 24 h which was significantly higher than hydrolysis yield obtained with the commercial enzyme Celluclast.