357EXTRACELLULAR ENZYME ACTIVITY INDICES OF FUSARIUM SPECIES ISOLATED FROM MYCOTIC KERATITISMycotic keratitis, a common cause of corneal infection and blindness is one of the most difficult challenges for clinicians all over the world. Fusarium species are responsible for 70% of these cases. The morphogenesis and phenotypic switching of fungi helps them to adapt to various environment. The ability to invade and proliferate within the corneal tissue makes them highly pathogenic. During this invasion and colonisation, fungi secrete a broad spectrum of enzymes. These enzymes play an important role in nutrition and host cell degradation. In the present study, a total of 30 isolates of Fusarium spp., were obtained after processing the corneal specimen taken from the patients attending a tertiary care eye hospital in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India. Simultaneously an isolate of Fusarium sp., form the soil was obtained for the comparative study. The isolates were screened for the enzymes viz., α – amylase, cellulase, DNase, lipase, pectinase and protease on suitable media and the enzyme activity indices were calculated. The results indicated that both the clinical and soil isolates of Fusarium spp. had similar enzyme activity patterns.shobanasenthilkumar@gmail.comResearch4122013Mycotic keratitis,Fusarium spp,Enzyme activity indexNeema Gopal,Yendrembam Randhir Babu Singh,Kanesan Panneer Selvam,Palanisamy Manikandan,Coimbatore Subramanian Shobana Department of Microbiology, Dr. G.R. Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore – 641 014, Tamilnadu, India., Department of Microbiology, Dr. G.R. Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore – 641 014, Tamilnadu, India.,Department of Microbiology, M R Government Arts College, Mannargudi – 614 001, Tamilnadu, India.,Department of Microbiology, Aravind Eye Hospital and Post Graduate institute of Ophthalmology, Coimbatore – 641 014, Tamilnadu, India, Department of Microbiology, Dr. G.R. Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore – 641 014, Tamilnadu, India.