Solid‐state fermentation in multi‐well plates to assess pretreatment efficiency of rot fungi on lignocellulose biomass

The potential of fungal pretreatment to improve fermentable sugar yields from wheat straw or Miscanthus was investigated. We assessed 63 fungal strains including 53 white-rot and 10 brown-rot fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota phylum in an original 12 day small-scale solid-state fermentation (SSF) experiment using 24-well plates. This method offers the convenience of one-pot processing of samples from SSF to enzymatic hydrolysis. The comparison of the lignocellulolytic activity profiles of white-rot fungi and brown-rot fungi showed different behaviours. The hierarchical clustering according to glucose and reducing sugars released from each biomass after 72h enzymatic hydrolysis splits the set of fungal strains into three groups: efficient, no-effect and detrimental-effect species. The efficient group contained 17 species belonging to seven white-rot genera and one brown-rot genus. The yield of sugar released increased significantly (max. 62%) compared with non-inoculated controls for both substrates.