Abstract BackgroundMajor cost of bioethanol is attributed to enzymes employed in biomass hydrolysis. Biomass hydrolyzing enzymes are predominantly produced from the hyper cellulolytic mutant filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei RUT-C30. Several decades of research have failed to provide an industrial grade organism other than T. reesei, capable of producing higher titers of an effective synergistic biomass hydrolyzing enzyme cocktail. Penicillium janthinellum NCIM1366 was reported as a cellulase hyper producer and a potential alternative to T. reesei, but a comparison of their hydrolytic performance was seldom attempted. ResultsHydrolysis of acid or alkali pretreated rice straw using cellulase enzyme preparations from P. janthinellum and T. reesei indicated 37 and 43 % higher glucose release respectively with P. janthinellum enzymes. A comparison of these fungi with respect to their secreted enzymes indicated that the crude enzyme preparation from P. janthinellum showed 28 % higher overall cellulase activity. It also had an exceptional 10-fold higher beta-glucosidase activity compared to that of T. reesei, leading to a lower cellobiose accumulation and thus alleviating the feedback inhibition. P. janthinellum secreted more number of proteins to the extracellular medium whose total concentration was 1.8 fold higher than T. reesei. Secretome analyses of the two fungi revealed higher number of CAZymes and a higher relative abundance of cellulases upon cellulose induction in the fungus.ConclusionsThe results revealed the ability of P. janthinellum for efficient biomass degradation through hyper cellulase production, and it outperformed the established industrial cellulase producer T. reesei in the hydrolysis experiments. A higher level of induction, larger number of secreted CAZymes and a high relative proportion of BGL to cellulases indicate the possible reasons for its performance advantage in biomass hydrolysis.