L-Glutaminase, an amidohydrolase enzyme has been a choice of interest in the treatment of lymphoblastic leukemia. This study investigates the production and optimization of extracellular glutaminase enzyme using several agro-industrial residues by Aspergillus flavus KUGF009 using SSF (solid state fermentation). Effect of process variables namely substrates, incubation period, temperature, moisture content, initial pH, supplementary carbon and nitrogen sources and metal ions on the production of L-glutaminase was studied and accordingly, optimum conditions were determined. A. flavus KUGF009 was cultured in tea dust to produce L-glutaminase. The organism produced high levels of glutaminase under optimized culture conditions on the 5th day of incubation at an optimum pH 4.0, temperature 30°C and moisture content 50% by SSF. Enhanced production occurred on the addition of dextrose, yeast extract and MgSO 4 as nutritional factors.

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Our earlier paper had established the fact that new soil fungi known as Cunninghamella blakesleeana is potent enough to produce lovastatin significantly. At present, there are no reports on the media optimization for the lovastatin production. Hence, the objective is to optimize the fermentation conditions for lovastatin production by Cunninghamella blakesleeana under Solid State fermentation (SSF) condition through screening the critical factors by one factor at a time and then, optimize the factors selected from screening using statistical approaches. SSF was carried using the pure culture of Cunninghamella blakesleeana KP780148.1 with wheat bran as substrate. Initial screening was performed for physical parameters, carbon sources and nitrogen sources and then optimized the selected parameters through PBD and BBD. Screening result indicated the optimum values of the analysed parameter for the maximal production of lovastatin by Cunninghamella blakesleeana were selected. Out of the nine factors MgSO4, (NH4)2SO4, pH and Incubation period were found to influence the lovastatin production significantly after PBD. The optimal levels of these variables and the effect of their mutual interactions on lovastatin production were determined using BBD surface design. The optimum medium composition was found to be MgSO4(0.2 g/L), (NH4)2 SO4 (12.5 g/L), pH (6) and Incubation period (7 days). Experimental studies showed a yield of 7.39 mg/g at the above optimized conditions which were observed to be very nearby to the predicted value and hence the model was successfully validated. Hence, this is the first report on the optimization of critical parameters for lovastatin production by Cunninghamella blakesleeana.