Abstract

The present study, 20 fungal strains were isolated from tomato rhizosphere of senegal. Out of twenty strains 5 showed the chitinolytic activity on chitin agar medium. Of the 5 strains NG4 showed the maximum solubilization zone. This strain was identified by preliminary biochemical and 18S rRNA sequencing analysis. Enzyme production started after 3 days of incubation and maximum was observed after 5 days of incubation. Culture filtrate amended with 0.1 percent colloidal chitin was used in the production medium. The optimum conditions for maximum chitinase activity are - 6 days of growth and temperature of 30 OC at pH 6.0. The chitinase activity was also influenced by addition of carbon and nitrogen sources in the production medium.

Key words: Trichoderma, chitinase, optimization, tomato rhizosphere