The Potential of Lipolytic Filamentous Fungi Isolated from Landfill Soil as Poly-β-Hydroxybutirate (PHB) Bioplastic Degrader

Abstract The present study was investigated the potential of lipolytic fungi (molds) isolated from landfill soil in degrading Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). Screening of PHB-degrading lipolytic molds was done in two stages, such as screening of lipolytic molds which was identified by the formation of orange fluorescent halos around the colony on rhodamine B agar medium and the degradation PHB ability test was identified by the formation of clear zone around colony on PHB emulsion medium. Characterization of isolates was done based on phenotypic characters and the identification was done by numerical-phenetic analysis. Three lipolytic mold isolates that have ability in degrading PHB bioplastic i.e isolate KC1, KE1 and KE6. These molds have asexual spore form conidia, foot cell, septate hyphae, unbranched conidiophore, and spore mass located at the apex of phialid. The identification results showed that isolate KC1 is identic to Aspergillus terreus, KE1 is identic to Aspergillus niger and KE6 is identic to Aspergillus fumigatus.