Abstract
The investigation was undertaken to enhance the decomposition process by pre-treatment of rice stubble, having higher concentration of lignin. Air-dried rice stubble was treated with 1.8 liter of 1% NaOH and autoclaved. Six cellulolytic fungi, Trichoderma harzianum, Penicillium citrinum, Curvularia lunata, Aspergillus flavus and Alternaria alternata were grown in basal synthetic medium along with delignified rice-residue as carbon source for production of soluble crude protein. Though the loss of cellulose has been observed by all of them but having a considerable status in the presence of T. harzianum and T. harzianum yielded highest percentage of crude protein (27.99%) with biomass of 375 mg, whereas the lowest protein value (17.91%) was recorded in case of A. niger with biomass of 422 mg. Among the imperfect fungi, T. harzianum was the most potent. Effects of incubation period and nitrogen sources on soluble crude protein production by T. harzianum were also undertaken in this study. Fifth day of incubation period and potassium nitrate as nitrogen source among other nitrogen sources was found most appropriate for soluble crude protein production by the mentioned organism.