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University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad

The University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad was established on October 1, 1986. The University has 5 Colleges, 27 Research Stations, 6 Agriculture Extension Education Centers, 6 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and ATIC. The University has its jurisdiction over 7 districts namely Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bijapur, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, and Uttar Kannada in northern Karnataka. Greater diversity exists in soil types, climate, topography cropping and farming situations. The jurisdiction includes dry-farming to heavy rainfall and irrigated area. Important crops of the region include sorghum, cotton, rice, pulses, chilli, sugarcane, groundnut, sunflower, wheat, safflower etc. The region is also known for many horticultural crops. Considerable progress has been registered in the field of education, research and extension from this University.

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  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Bioprospecting of pectinase enzymes from fungi
    (UAS Dharwad, 2013) Dushyantha D. K.; K. S. Jagadeesh
    The present study was conducted to isolate, and characterize fungi from diverse natural sources capable of producing pectinases. Based on the preliminary screening of 100 isolates, 48 isolates were found positive for pectinase production. Out of them, isolates RBF96 (3.25), RC27 (3.21) and DLP51 (3.21) possessed the highest potency index values compared to the reference strain Aspergillus niger MTCC1344 (2.99). Following the PCR based molecular methods, the isolates were identified as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae and Penicillium citrinum respectively. Solid state fermentation (SSF) was carried out using various locally available agro-wastes as the carbon source. Citrus peel was identified as the most suitable substrate. The particle size of 2 mm, moisture level of 65 per cent, incubation temperature of 35oC, inoculum level of 1 x 107 spores g-1 and the incubation time of six days were found optimum. After purification the maximum specific activity of 83.06 U μg-1 protein was obtained for polygalacturonase (PG) by A. niger RBF96 with seven fold increase in purification. Similarly, about six folds and five folds increases in purification were obtained for pectin lyase (PL) and pectin esterase (PE) in P. citrinum DLP51 and A. oryzae RC27 respectively. The molecular weights of PG, PL and PE, as determined by SDSPAGE, were 45 kDa, 37 kDa and 31 kDa respectively. The purified PG showed maximum stability at pH 4.5, whereas, PL and PE showed at pH 6.5 and 5.0 respectively. The temperature of 50oC was found optimum. The orange pulp treated with (PG+PL+PE) at 100 U resulted in the highest juice yield (90.17%) and the highest clarity (96.28%). Similarly, in guava this treatment resulted in the highest juice yield (66.75%) and maximum clarity (37.57%). The organoleptic evaluation proved that pectinases could be used to improve the sensorial attributes of fruit juices.