Fibre degradation of wheat straw by Pleurotus erygnii under low moisture conditions during solid-state fermentation

Abstract

The application of solid‐state fermentation offers an alternative to conventional, submerged approaches for a variety of bioconversion processes, including animal feeds, biofuels and fungal bioproducts. Optimizing solid‐state fermentation under low moisture conditions could significantly impact the proportion of dry biomass that could be processed and improve the commercial viability of this approach, because of reduced input costs and higher yields of final products. Pleurotus erygnii that appeared to show tolerance to low moisture conditions was grown on saturated and desaturated wheat straw. Pleurotus erygnii showed insignificant fibre degradation although showed significantly lower biomass decomposition on desaturated wheat straw. Fibre decomposition by the fungus on wheat straw containing wheat bran showed marginally higher decomposition when saturated although there was no difference in biomass decomposition. The levels of delignification achieved were similar under different saturation conditions. It would appear that the fungus effectively decomposed fibre under low moisture conditions often resulting in lower biomass losses. Significance and Impact of the Study In this study, a white rot fungus, Pleurotus erygnii, effectively decomposed fibre under low moisture conditions when grown on wheat straw at similar levels under higher moisture conditions. However, the addition of wheat bran to wheat straw created a heterogeneous system that appeared to allow P. erygnii to thrive under much lower moisture conditions although lower levels of fibre decomposition was obtained. These factors could influence the preparation of solid‐state fermentation.

Towards industrial application of fungal pretreatment in 2G biorefinery: scale-up of solid-state fermentation of wheat straw

“…Figure 2 depicts the time evolution of the morphological aspect of wheat straw treated in both reactor configurations. It is observed that wheat straw is a suitable feedstock for WRF, as previously reported [35,36]. However, when comparing the wheat straw colonisation on day 4, it is evident that I. lacteus grew faster in the packed bed configuration.…”

The saprotrophic Pleurotus ostreatus species complex: late Eocene origin in East Asia, multiple dispersal, and complex speciation

“…and their allies belong to the complex. Because of its nutritional and medical properties, as well as diverse biotechnological applications, the P. ostreatus species complex is one of the three most actively cultivated mushroom species in the world (Baker et al 2018;Cardwell et al 2018;Golak-Siwulska et al 2018). As commonly found saprotrophic mushrooms, species within the P. ostreatus complex constitute essential components in forest and grassland ecosystems because of their roles as decomposers of a large array of lignocellulosic substrates, such as deciduous trees (Kay and Vilgalys 1992;Petersen and Krisai-Greilhuber 1996), coniferous trees (Petersen and Hughes 1997;Vilgalys et al 1993), as well as herbs in the Apiaceae family (Zervakis et al 2014).…”

Establishing Experimental Conditions to Produce Lignin-Degrading Enzymes on Wheat Bran by Trametes versicolor CM13 Using Solid State Fermentation

“…was 33% [26]. These values are considerably lower than the atypical low moisture content of 67%, which only supported the growth of only one species of white rot fungi, Pleurotus erygnii, on wheat straw [27]. This study also reported that the addition of 30% wheat bran to wheat straw reduced the moisture content to 44%, but this level of moisture continued to support the growth of P. erygnii.…”