Catalytic Performance of Corn Stover Hydrolysis by a New Isolate <Emphasis Type="Italic">Penicillium</Emphasis> sp. ECU0913 Producing both Cellulase and Xylanase

A fungal strain, marked as ECU0913, producing high activities of both cellulase and xylanase was newly isolated from soil sample collected near decaying straw and identified as Penicillium sp. based on internal transcribed spacer sequence homology. The cultivation of this fungus produced both cellulase (2.40 FPU/ml) and xylanase (241 IU/ml) on a stepwisely optimized medium at 30 °C for 144 h. The cellulase and xylanase from Penicillium sp. ECU0913 was stable at an ambient temperature with half-lives of 28 and 12 days, respectively. Addition of 3 M sorbitol greatly improved the thermostability of the two enzymes, with half-lives increased by 2.3 and 188-folds, respectively. Catalytic performance of the Penicillium cellulase and xylanase was evaluated by the hydrolysis of corn stover pretreated by steam explosion. With an enzyme dosage of 50 FPU/g dry substrate, the conversions of cellulose and hemicellulose reached 77.2% and 47.5%, respectively, without adding any accessory enzyme.