L-Asparaginase
Production by Aspergillus unguis
Maniyar Rajiv, Dave Jatan, Gohil Bharatsinh and Vala Anjana K.
Res. J. Biotech.; Vol. 20(12); 192-198;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/2012rjbt1920198; (2025)
Abstract
Demand for L-asparaginase (LA) has increased worldwide due to its diverse applications,
particularly in cancer therapy and in food industry. While various microbial sources
have been extensively studied for LA production, exploration on fungal LA, especially
from hypersaline environments hitherto remains untapped. The objective of the work
was to explore LA production potential of fungi isolated from saltern. The isolation
yielded seven fungi (RJ1 to RJ7) and all the isolates exhibited LA production potential.
Upon examining salt tolerance (2M-5M), isolate RJ1 efficiently grew at all test
concentration with optimum growth at 3M salt, hence it was subjected to molecular
identification and was identified as Aspergillus unguis strain LS-MKBU.
Effect of sugar concentration on LA production by A. unguis LS-MKBU was also examined.
The present work is a report on LA production by saltern-derived fungi. This work
unveils A. unguis as a novel LA producer. The findings contribute to enzyme biotechnology
especially from hypersaline environment, opening avenues for novel applications
and future research.
