Fungi, being natural decomposers, are the most potent, ubiquitous and versatile sources of industrial enzymes. About 60% of market share of industrial enzymes is sourced from filamentous fungi and yeasts. Mycozymes (myco-fungus; zymes-enzymes) are playing a pivotal role in several industrial applications and a number of potential applications are in the offing. The field of mycozyme production, while maintaining the old traditional methods, has also witnessed a sea change due to advents in recombinant DNA technology, optimisation protocols, fermentation technology and systems biology. Consolidated bioprocessing of abundant lignocellulosic biomass and complex polysaccharides is being explored at an unprecedented pace and a number of mycozymes of diverse fungal origins are being explored using suitable platforms. The present review attempts to revisit the current status of various mycozymes, screening and production strategies and applications thereof.

Thermostable hemicellulases have potential to improve the quality of products of various industries including pulp and paper, food and feed, textile, etc. This study was aimed to isolate, screen, and identify potential xylanase and mannanase producers from heated environments. Sixty-eight thermophilic and thermotolerant fungi were isolated from various self-heated habitats based on their ability to grow at 45℃. With the aid of cultural and morphological observations, the fungi were identified and grouped into 19 fungal species. The enzyme production was evaluated by cultivating isolated fungi in submerged fermentation using wheat bran as carbon source. Screening of these isolates for hydrolysis of xylan and mannan was confirmed by Congo red plate assay method followed by assessment of xylanase and mannanase activity. Based on experimental analysis, we have found that all the isolates have exhibited xylanase activity, whereas only 22 isolates have found positive for mannanase activity. The highest xylanase and mannanase production was obtained by the cultivation of Malbranchea cinnamomea NFCCI 3724 (242 and 27 nkat/ml) followed by Melanocarpus albomyces (195 and 24 nkat/ml), Aspergillus terreus (165 and 21 nkat/ml), and Myceliophthora thermophila NFCCI 3725 (130 and 18 nkat/ml), respectively.

The results obtained from this work strongly indicate that the solid state fermentation (SSF) system using the palm kernel cake (PKC) as a substrate is an economical method for the production of β-mannanase at extremely low operational cost based on the fact that PKC is one of the cheap and abundant agro-waste by-products of the palm oil industry. Under initial conditions, i.e. 2 mm particle size of PKC, the moisture ratio of 1:1 of PKC:moistening agent and pH 7, Malbranchea cinnamomea NFCCI 3724 produced 109 U/gram distribution of the substrate (gds). The production of β-mannanase was optimised by the statistical approach response surface methodology (RSM) using independent variables, namely initial moisture (12.5), pH (9.0) and solka floc (100 mg). Noticeably, six fold enhancement of β-mannanase production (599 U/gds) was obtained under statistically optimised conditions. HPLC results revealed that β-mannanase is an endo-active enzyme that generated manno-oligosaccharides with a degree of polymerisation (DP) of 3 and 4. Semi-native PAGE analysis revealed that M. cinnamomea produced three isoforms of mannanase. Selective production of oligosaccharide makes M. cinnamomea β-mannanase an attractive enzyme for use in food and nutraceutical industries.