Long-Term Enrichment on Cellulose or Xylan Causes Functional and Taxonomic Convergence of Microbial Communities from Anaerobic Digesters.

ABSTRACT: Cellulose and xylan are two major components of lignocellulosic biomass, which represents a potentially important energy source, as it is abundant and can be converted to methane by microbial action. However, it is recalcitrant to hydrolysis, and the establishment of a complete anaerobic digestion system requires a specific repertoire of microbial functions. In this study, we maintained 2-year enrichment cultures of anaerobic digestion sludge amended with cellulose or xylan to investigate whether a cellulose- or xylan-digesting microbial system could be assembled from sludge previously used to treat neither of them. While efficient methane-producing communities developed under mesophilic (35°C) incubation, they did not under thermophilic (55°C) conditions. Illumina amplicon sequencing resu

SUBMITTER: Jia Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4771320 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature