Enzyme Activity of Culturable Fungi and Bacteria Isolated from Traditional Agarwood Fermentation Basin Indicate Temporally Significant Lignocellulosic and Lipid Substrate Modulations.

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Agarwood oil is one of the costliest essential oils used in perfumery, medicine and aroma. Production of the oil traditionally involves a soaking/fermentation step. Studies have indicated a definite role of the diverse microorganisms growing during the open soaking step, and in the emergent aroma of the essential oil. However, the temporal nature of fermentation and a key functional aspect i.e., the enzymatic properties of the microbes from the fermentation basin have not been studied yet. A total of 20 bacteria and 14 fungi isolated from fermentation basins located in Assam, India, at different soaking periods classified as early (0-20 days), medium (20-40 days) and late (40-60 days) clearly pointed towards an early fungal domination followed by succession of bacteria. The physico-chemical transformations of the wood are controlled by enzymatic properties (cellulase, xylanase, amylase and lipase) of the isolates. The results indicated a strong lignocellulosic substrate modulation potential in the four isolates, viz- (0.354 mg/mL), (0.331 mg/mL), (0.324 mg/mL) and (0.152 mg/mL). The highest culturable abundance (CFU/mL) was found in (2 × 10) among fungi and (4.5 × 10) among bacteria. The highest cellulase activity was shown by (0.354 mg/mL) while xylanase and lipase by (0.873 and 0.128 mg/mL). An interesting revelation was that a substantial proportion of the isolates (70% bacteria and 78% fungi) were positive for lipase activity. This is the first report on the "culturable microbiome" of the agarwood fermentation basin from a temporal and functional bioactivity perspective.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-024-01257-y.