Abstract: Antrodia bambusicola,a brown rot fungus,produces cellulase with important practical values. To improve its cellulase activity,Plackett-Burman design,the steepest ascent design,and Box-Behnken design in response surface methodology were employed to establish mathematical model while the cellulase activity was taken as the response. The optimal composition for the production of cellulase from A. bambusicola was obtained as follows：glucose 7.44 g/L,peptone 5.0 g/L,wheat bran 35.31 g/L,Tween 80 9.57 mL/L,KH2PO4 1.0 g/L,MgSO4·7H2O 0.5 g/L,CoCl2·6H2O 0.06 g/L,FeSO4·7H2O 0.03 g/L,CaCl2 0.5 g/L,ZnSO4·7H2O 0.05 g/L,and vitamin B1 0.01 g/L. Under the optimized conditions,the cellulase activity was 53.17 U/mL,which agreed closely with the theoretical result of 52.65 U/mL predicted by the developed model,and this yield was 2.84-fold higher than that produced in basal medium alone. Above results indicate that the response surface methodology is viable for optimizing medium composition in improving cellulase activity.

Key words: brown rot fungus, Antrodia bambusicola, cellulase, response surface methodology