TY - JOUR

T1 - Fibre degradation of wheat straw by Pleurotus erygnii under low moisture conditions during solid-state fermentation

AU - Baker, P. W.

AU - Charlton, A.

AU - Hale, M. D. C.

N1 - The authors acknowledge the support through the BEACON+ project, partially funded through the European Regional Development Fund by the Welsh Government

PY - 2019/2

Y1 - 2019/2

N2 - The application of solid-state fermentation offers an alternative toconventional, submerged approaches for a variety of bioconversion processes,including animal feeds, biofuels and fungal bioproducts. Optimizing solid-statefermentation under low moisture conditions could significantly impact theproportion of dry biomass that could be processed and improve thecommercial viability of this approach, because of reduced input costs andhigher yields of final products. Pleurotus erygnii that appeared to showtolerance to low moisture conditions was grown on saturated and desaturatedwheat straw. Pleurotus erygnii showed insignificant fibre degradation althoughshowed significantly lower biomass decomposition on desaturated wheat straw.Fibre decomposition by the fungus on wheat straw containing wheat branshowed marginally higher decomposition when saturated although there wasno difference in biomass decomposition. The levels of delignification achievedwere similar under different saturation conditions. It would appear that thefungus effectively decomposed fibre under low moisture conditions oftenresulting in lower biomass losses.

AB - The application of solid-state fermentation offers an alternative toconventional, submerged approaches for a variety of bioconversion processes,including animal feeds, biofuels and fungal bioproducts. Optimizing solid-statefermentation under low moisture conditions could significantly impact theproportion of dry biomass that could be processed and improve thecommercial viability of this approach, because of reduced input costs andhigher yields of final products. Pleurotus erygnii that appeared to showtolerance to low moisture conditions was grown on saturated and desaturatedwheat straw. Pleurotus erygnii showed insignificant fibre degradation althoughshowed significantly lower biomass decomposition on desaturated wheat straw.Fibre decomposition by the fungus on wheat straw containing wheat branshowed marginally higher decomposition when saturated although there wasno difference in biomass decomposition. The levels of delignification achievedwere similar under different saturation conditions. It would appear that thefungus effectively decomposed fibre under low moisture conditions oftenresulting in lower biomass losses.

U2 - 10.1111/lam.13104

DO - 10.1111/lam.13104

M3 - Article

VL - 68

SP - 182

EP - 187

JO - Letters in Applied Microbiology

JF - Letters in Applied Microbiology

SN - 0266-8254

IS - 2

ER -