Improved Treatment and Utilization of Rice Straw by Coprinopsis cinerea

As one of the most abundant renewable resources, rice straw is an attractive lignocellulosic material for animal feeding or for the production of biochemical. An appropriate pre-treatment technique is essential for converting rice straw to rich fodder or biofuel. Based on previous work, Coprinopsis cinerea can grow on rice straw medium and therefore it is useful for the treatment of rice straw. However, little is known regarding its degradation systems and nutrition values. In this study, we firstly found that C. cinerea could grow rapidly on rice straw without any additives by the production of a series of enzymes (laccase, cellulase, and xylanase) and that the microstructure and contents of rice straw changed significantly after being treated by C. cinerea. We propose that a possible underlying mechanism exists in the degradation. Moreover, C. cinerea has a high nutrition value (23.5% crude protein and 22.2% total amino acids). Hence, fermented rice straw with mycelium could be a good animal feedstuff resource instead of expensive forage. The direct usage of C. cinerea treatment is expected to be a practical, cost-effective, and environmental-friendly approach for enhancing the nutritive value and digestibility of rice straw.