Trichoderma reesei has long been acknowledged for its significant potential in producing cellulolytic enzymes and has been used extensively for industrial production. However the linkage between the cultivation process conditions, the amounts and types of cellulolytic enzymes produced, and in turn, how hydrolysis of real feedstocks will subsequently be affected is poorly understood. The present study aims at establishing this relationship.

The cellulolytic hyper-producing and glucose de-repressed strain T. reesei Rut-C30 was used in batch fermentations using Avicel PH-101 as carbon source. Cultivations were conducted under a variety of pH and temperature conditions, and total extracellular protein, filter paper- and endoglucanase-activity were determined. The results were compared with the performance of the crude enzyme preparations (fermentation broth) in a mini-hydrolysis assay using pre-treated corn stover.

The results indicate that, based on equal protein loadings, the best hydrolysis performance was obtained when using fermentation broth produced at pH 4.5 and 23^oC. After 72h 94% of the corn stover was converted to glucose when beta-glucosidase was added to the enzyme mixture and 50% was converted when the fermentation broth alone was used. Interestingly, these cultivation conditions also gave the best enzyme titre of all the fermentations, based on both protein and filter paper activity measurements. It is therefore clear that by simply changing the cultivation conditions, the hydrolytic potential can be increased drastically. Further analysis of the enzyme mixtures produced was performed using SDS-PAGE and LC-MS-MS in order to understand the reasons for difference in enzyme performance.