Plant cell wall degrading enzymes are given importance due to the development of efficient biomass degradation methods and the conversion of sugars to valuable products like butanol, amino acids and utilizable forms such as ethanol and methane. Plant biomass is an abundant renewable resource with cellulose and hemicellulose comprising about 40-50% of plant cell. The rate-limiting step in biomass degradation is the conversion of the cellulose and hemicellulose polymers to sugars. Cellulase enzyme has many potent commercial applications in industries. It is commonly produced as an extra cellular enzyme in fungi, bacteria and insects, however fungal enzymes are amongst the most extensively studied and characterized. Trichoderma reesei is the most commonly used organism for the commercial production of cellulase.An attempt has been made in the present study to improve the yield by using a mixed culture of Trichoderma reesei and Penicillium funiculosum on low cost substrates, corn fibre and sugarcane bagasse. The results show that the growth of T. reesei and P. funiculosum, production rate and cellulase activity was high only when sugarcane bagasse was used as substrate than that of corn fibre. Also the yield of cellulase enzyme and its activity were greater in the case of mixed culture than pure cultures of T. reesei andP. funiculosum.

KEY WORDS: Cellulose, Cellulase, Corn fibre, Growth kinetics and product kinetics, Sugarcane Bagasse, Trichoderma
Peesei, Penicillum funiculosum.