Journal of Scientil-rc & Industrial Research Vol 57, Oct & Nov 1998, pp. 617-620 Introduction Effluents from agro-based industries contain con- siderable arnounts of undegraded carbohydrates. proteins, etc.t . Direct discharge ofuntreated effluents from these rndustries may have profound influence on the biological properties of land and water sys- tems. For instancc, soil samples contaminatcd with effluents from a viscose factory had undergone changes in microbial populations2. According to Monanmani et a1.3, discharge of effluents into soil from alcohol and chemical industries led to increase in microbial population and microbial activity. Simi- larly, soils when received effluents from pulp and paper mills, over a period of l5 years, recorded the manimum count of bacte ria and fungia. Virhrally, information on the impact of effluents from cotton. ginning industries on biological properties of soils is lacking. Hence, in this paper, we present results not only on the influence of effluents of cotton ginning industries on microbial populations in soils but also on cellulolyt,c activity of fungal culhrres isolated from soil samples with/without effluent discharges, Materials end Methods Enumeration of Microbial Populatioru in Soil kmple s Wi tffi{ithout Effluent Di s charge s Soil (black cotton) samples with effluents dis- gharyed from Gajalakshmi ginning industry locatcd ndmce Cellulolytic Activity of Fungal Cultures B Rajasekhar Reddy*, G Narasimha and G V A K Babu . Department of Mictobiology, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur 515 (X)3. India Received:03 March 1998;accepted:01 May 1998 It is pointed out that the disclurge of eflluents from cotton ginning rnills affect tlre microbial populations in a black coson soil. The fimgal populations are enlunced whereas bacterial population arc dccrcascd irr the po[uted soil, in comparison to unpolluted one. Four fungat cultures isolated fronr polluted and unpolluted soil samples are identified as Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp., Mltrothecium roridunr, urd Aspergillus sp. The cellulolytic rctivity of these cultures are dctennincd by filtcr papcr assay nrctlnd. ..{. niger exhibited the highest (1.66 FPU/mL) andM. roridum the least (0.74 FPU/mL) cellulasc activity. at Nandyal, KurnooI district, Andhra Pradcsh and soil samples without effluent dischargcs (control) from farm of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Rcsearch Station, which is very adjacent to the ginning mill, were collccted. Fungal and bactcrial populations in soil samples with/without effluent discharges were enumcrated by scrial dilution mcthod aftcrgrowth on Rose Bengal mcdiurrr (fungi) and nutriont agar (bac- teria), respectively. Identification of F\mgal Cultures Fungal colonies, appeared in plates for enumera- tion of fungal m icroflora in soil sanrplos with/rvithout efflucnt dischargcs wcrc furthcr purificd by subcul- turing number of timcs on Rose Bcngal agar platcs and finally maintained in the same slants. Cultural characteristics such as colour and size of colonies of fungal isolates and size and shape of conidiopho- res/fruiting bodies and conidia were mcasured and recorded. Fungal isolates were identified by nratch- ing these characteristics with those listcd in thc stand- ard refercnce book entitled, "Compcndiunr of Soil Fungi"5. Growlh of Fungal C'ttltttres.for Prcdrrctictn ol Cellulase Fungal cultures were cultivated in tr.' :ri n,c(liunr in the manner as described earliet' for tl: i) rn, luction of ccllulolytic cnzyntcs rvitlr lbllou irrr urqrcrlicnts (glL) KH2PO 0,2.0; MgS O0.7 HrO, 0 l; Cr('lr}H,O.