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Evaluation of Selected White-Rot Fungal Isolates for Improving the Sugar Yield from Wheat Straw

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology volume 173, pages 609–623 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass by fungi can represent a low-cost and eco-friendly alternative to physicochemical methods to facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis. However, fungal metabolism can cause cellulose loss and it is therefore necessary to use the appropriate fungal strain-biomass type combination. In this work, the effects of biological pretreatments carried out by five different fungi on enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw were investigated. The best results were obtained with a Ceriporiopsis subvermispora strain, which minimized weight and cellulose losses and gave the highest net sugar yield (calculated with respect to the holocellulose content of the untreated straw), up to 44 % after a 10-week pretreatment, more than doubling the yields obtained with the other isolates. Moreover, prolonging the pretreatment from 4 up to 10 weeks produced a 2-fold increase, up to 60 %, in digestibility (sugar yield, calculated considering the holocellulose content of the pretreated material). The hemicellulose content of the pretreated material resulted inversely correlated with digestibility, and it could thus be utilized as an index of the pretreatment efficacy. Finally, a correlation was also found between digestibility and the difference between the absorbance values at 290 and 320 nm of pretreated wheat straw extracts.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out in the framework of the “BIOSEGEN Project” funded by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, D.M. 17532/7303/10.

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  1. Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA), Centro di Ricerca per le Colture Industriali, Via di Corticella 133, 40128, Bologna, Italy

    Stefano Cianchetta, Barbara Di Maggio, Pier Luigi Burzi & Stefania Galletti

Authors
  1. Stefano Cianchetta
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  2. Barbara Di Maggio
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  3. Pier Luigi Burzi
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  4. Stefania Galletti
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Correspondence to Stefano Cianchetta.

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Cianchetta, S., Di Maggio, B., Burzi, P.L. et al. Evaluation of Selected White-Rot Fungal Isolates for Improving the Sugar Yield from Wheat Straw. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 173, 609–623 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-014-0869-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-014-0869-3

Keywords

  • Biological pretreatment
  • White-rot fungi
  • Ceriporiopsis subvermispora
  • Wheat straw
  • Enzymatic hydrolysis
  • UV absorbance