Aspergillus terreus Unimap AA-1: A Newly Isolated Extracellular Glucose Oxidase-Producing Strain

Glucose oxidase (GOx) has found wide range of industrial applications. Commercial GOx are produced from Aspergillus niger and selected strains of Penicllium species, however, these strains are associated with some drawbacks. Aspergillus niger produces predominantly intracellular GOx, which requires extra recovery processes thus incurs more processing cost while Penicillium sp. exhibits filamentous morphology in submerged cultivation which results in poor oxygen mass transfer and in turn affects the GOx production. Therefore, it is necessary to find an alternative strain which produces predominantly extracellular GOx and exhibits pelleted morphology in submerged cultivation. The present work deals with the isolation and identification of a new isolated GOx-producing strain, Aspergillus terreus UniMAP AA-1, which produced both the desired traits. It was found that enzymatic properties of the crude enzyme are all in-line with the typical commercial GOx properties.