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Abstract Background Lignocellulosic biomass provides a great starting point for the production of energy, chemicals, and fuels. The major component of lignocellulosic biomass is cellulose, the employment of highly effective enzymatic cocktails, which can be produced by a variety of microorganisms including species of the genus Aspergillus, is necessary for its utilization in a more productive manner. In this regard, molecular biology techniques should be utilized to promote the economics of enzyme production, whereas strategies like protoplast fusion could be employed to improve the efficacy of the hydrolytic process. Results The current study focuses on cellulase production in Aspergillus species using intrageneric protoplast fusion, statistical optimization of growth parameters, and determination of antioxidant activity of fermentation hydrolysate. Protoplast fusion was conducted between A. flavus X A. terreus (PFFT), A. nidulans X A. tamarii (PFNT) and A. oryzae X A. tubingensis (PFOT), and the resultant fusant PFNT revealed higher activity level compared with the other fusants. Thus, this study aimed to optimize lignocellulosic wastes-based medium for cellulase production by Aspergillus spp. fusant (PFNT) and studying the antioxidant effect of fermentation hydrolysate. The experimental strategy Plackett-Burman (PBD) was used to assess how culture conditions affected cellulase output, the best level of the three major variables namely, SCB, pH, and incubation temperature were then determined using Box-Behnken design (BBD). Consequently, by utilizing an optimized medium instead of a basal medium, cellulase activity increased from 3.11 U/ml to 7.689 U/ml CMCase. The following medium composition was thought to be ideal based on this optimization: sugarcane bagasse (SCB), 6.82 gm; wheat bran (WB), 4; Moisture, 80%; pH, 4; inoculum size, (3 × 106 spores/ml); and incubation Temp. 31.8 °C for 4 days and the fermentation hydrolysate has 28.13% scavenging activities. Conclusion The results obtained in this study demonstrated the significant activity of the selected fusant and the higher sugar yield from cellulose hydrolysis over its parental strains, suggesting the possibility of enhancing cellulase activity by protoplast fusion using an experimental strategy and the fermentation hydrolysate showed antioxidant activity.

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Enhancement of cellulolytic enzyme production from intrageneric protoplast fusion of aspergillus species and evaluating the hydrolysate scavenging activity" published in the journal Microbial Cell Factories. The correction addresses an error in the affiliation of one of the authors, Mohamed M. Yacout. The correct affiliation should be "Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria, Egypt" instead of the previously stated affiliation. The correction has been made to the original article. Springer Nature, the publisher, remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The authors of the article are Doaa A. Goda, Huda M. Shakam, Mai E. Metwally, Hager A. Abdelrasoul, and Mohamed M. Yacout. [Extracted from the article]