Screening of Ligninolytic Fungi for Biological Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass

In order to identify white rot fungi with high potential in biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, preliminary screening was carried out on plates by testing strains’ abilities to oxidize guaiacol and decolorize the dyes, azure B and Poly R-478. Of the eighty six strains screened, sixteen were further used for secondary screening based on their ligninolytic ability. However, low manganese peroxidase activity and no lignin peroxidase activity were detected. Strain BBEL0970 was proved to be the most efficient in laccase production, which was finally identified as T. versicolor by the analysis of ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer gene sequence. Combining laccase production with biological pretreatment, the replacement of glucose with barley straw significantly improved the laccase activity up to 10.3 U/ml, which provided evidence toward potential utilization of barley straw in laccase production by BBEL0970. Simultaneously, comparison in thermogravimetry analysis of the untreated and pretreated barley straw in liquid fermentation of laccase also demonstrated the high potential of BBEL0970 in biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. This work sheds light on further exploration on integrated process of low-cost laccase production and efficient biological pretreatment of barley straw by T. versicolor BBEL0970.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author