Abstract
Anaerobic fungi produce extracellular hydrolytic enzymes that facilitate degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose in ruminants. The purpose of this work was to study the impact of three different anaerobic fungal species (Anaeromyces mucronatus YE505, Neocallimastix frontalis 27, and Piromyces rhizinflatus YM600) on hydrolysis of two different lignocellulosic substrates, corn (Zea mays L.) silage and reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.). Biomass from each plant species was incubated anaerobically for 11 days either in the presence of live fungal inoculum or with heat-inactivated (control) inoculum. Headspace gas composition, dry matter loss, soluble chemical oxygen demand, concentration of volatile fatty acids, and chemical composition were measured before and after hydrolysis. While some microbial activity was observed, inoculation with anaerobic fungi did not result in any significant difference in the degradation of either type of plant biomass tested, likely due to low fungal activity or survival under the experimental conditions tested. While the premise of utilizing the unique biological activities of anaerobic fungi for biotechnology applications remains promising, further research on optimizing culturing and process conditions is necessary.
Highlights
In Europe, more than 13,638 biogas plants (72%) utilize the agricultural feedstocks out of 18,943 biogas plants [1], among which corn (Zea mays L.) silage is the major feedstock [2]
While all parts of the common reed can be used for both biogas and biofuel production [5], the estimated biogas yields reported in the literature are only 150 L kg−1 volatile solids (VS) of fresh material compared to grass and pig manure that yield more than 280 and 340 L kg−1 VS, respectively [4,6]
We evaluated the effect of three different fungal species (Anaeromyces mucronatus YE505, Neocallimastix frontalis 27, and Piromyces rhizinflatus YM600), which were previously isolated from ruminants and known to possess hydrolytic activity against lignocellulosic substrates, on microbial hydrolysis of corn silage and common reed
Summary
In Europe, more than 13,638 biogas plants (72%) utilize the agricultural feedstocks out of 18,943 biogas plants [1], among which corn (Zea mays L.) silage is the major feedstock [2]. While corn silage is the most widely used energy crop for biogas production, there is interest in using other sources of plant biomass for environmental, economic, and societal reasons [3]. One of the most efficient systems for unlocking the energy found in lignocellulosic substrates is the rumen animals such as cattle and sheep. One reason for the reduced efficiency of AD compared to the rumen likely lies in differences in the microbial populations between these two environments. Anaerobic fungi use rhizoids to physically penetrate and disrupt the lignin layer of lignocellulose, while enzymatically degrading plant cell walls using a diverse suite of extracellular hydrolytic enzymes, including cellulases, hemicellulases, pectinases, and phenolic acid esterases [11]. While AF are known to play an essential role within the rumen, their presence, abundance, and activity level in AD is not well understood
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