Potential application in biocatalysis of mycelium-bound lipases from Amazonian fungi

in this study, 212 fungi were isolated from amazon region plants, aiming to obtain mycelium bound-lipase-producing biocatalysts. these isolates were submitted to hydrolytic and synthetic activity assays. when submitted to the tributyrine substrate test, 87% of the isolates showed hydrolytic activity. of these, 30% showed good growth in lipase inducing liquid media and were submitted to evaluation of synthetic activity in esterification and transesterification reactions in organic solvents. the nine fungi which had the best synthetic activity were evaluated in the (r, s)-2-octanol resolution reaction, in order to verify the enantioselectivity of mycelium-bound lipases. the isolate uea_115 was the most versatile biocatalyst, showing good performance in esterification reactions (conversion > 90%) and good ability for the resolution of (r, s)-2-octanol (ees 29%; eep 99%; c 22%; e > 200). thus, this study has demonstrated the great potential of the amazonian fungi as lipase suppliers for biocatalysts.