Effect of Metal Ions and Enzyme Inhibitor on the Activity of Cellulase Enzyme of Aspergillus flavus

Natural by- product of agricultural waste can be turned to products of commercial interests such as glucose, ethanol and single cell protein. Much effort from scientists and researches all around the world has been put to extend the full use of agricultural waste. Reports of cellulase enzyme production from the bioconversion of lignocellulosics materials has much been made. However there is still much space to find the most suitable condition by studying the effect of the various metal ions in the activity of the enzyme. In this research different metal ions were added to the enzyme reaction mixture in 1-5 mM amounts, incubated at room temperature and then used to carry out enzyme assay using Cmc, Filter paper and cotton wool. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of various metal ions on the activity of the cellulase enzyme. Result shows that only Fe2+ had a pronounced stimulating effect (P<0.05) on the enzyme activity in all the substrates at 1mM concentration respectively. This was followed by Cu2+ in CMC but which was also found to be inhibitory when cotton wool and filter paper were used as substrates. However, other divalent metals were found to have either slight or appreciable inhibitory effects on the enzyme activity. According to these results, these ions must be avoided in future cultivations for a high cellulase production.