Correlation between a deep clearing test and quantitative methods for lipolytic activity of filamentous fungi

Abstract

The deep clearing test (DC) is a simple method for measuring the relative lipolytic activity of fungi. The depth of the clear zone below the fungal colony provides a visual measure of the lipolytic activity on a continuous cumulative basis. The depth of clearing was determined for four commercial enzyme concentrations and compared by correlation analysis with results obtained by a titrimetric method and a colorimetric method for measuring lipolytic activity. Good correlation coefficients were obtained between DC and either the titrimetric (R2 = 0.9373) or the colorimetric method (R2 = 0.9579). Using these data a putative lipolytic activity was determined for seven strains of filamentous fungi from Micoteca da Universidade do Minho (MUM) culture collection.