Laccase production by Coriolopsis caperata RCK2011: optimization under solid state fermentation by Taguchi DOE methodology.

Laccase production by Coriolopsis caperata RCK2011 under solid state fermentation was optimized following Taguchi design of experiment. An orthogonal array layout of L18 (2(1) × 3(7)) was constructed using Qualitek-4 software with eight most influensive factors on laccase production. At individual level pH contributed higher influence, whereas, corn steep liquor (CSL) accounted for more than 50% of the severity index with biotin and KH2PO4 at the interactive level. The optimum conditions derived were; temperature 30°C, pH 5.0, wheat bran 5.0 g, inoculum size 0.5 ml (fungal cell mass = 0.015 g dry wt.), biotin 0.5% w/v, KH2PO4 0.013% w/v, CSL 0.1% v/v and 0.5 mM xylidine as an inducer. The validation experiments using optimized conditions confirmed an improvement in enzyme production by 58.01%. The laccase production to the level of 1623.55 Ugds(-1) indicates that the fungus C. caperata RCK2011 has the commercial potential for laccase.