A lignocellulolytic microbial consortium holds promise for the in situ biodegradation of crop straw and the comprehensive and effective utilization of agricultural waste. In this study, we applied metagenomics technology to comprehensively explore the metabolic functional potential and taxonomic diversity of the microbial consortia CS (cultured on corn stover) and FP (cultured on filter paper).Analyses of the metagenomics taxonomic affiliation data showed considerable differences in the taxonomic composition and functional profile of the microbial consortia CS and FP. The microbial consortia CS primarily contained members from the genera Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Achromobacter, Dysgonomonas, Flavobacterium and Sphingobacterium, as well as Cellvibrio, Azospirillum, Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Cellulomonas in FP. The COG and KEGG annotation analyses revealed considerable levels of diversity. Further analysis determined that the CS consortium had an increase in the acid and ester metabolism pathways, while carbohydrate metabolism was enriched in the FP consortium. Furthermore, a comparison against the CAZy database showed that the microbial consortia CS and FP contain a rich diversity of lignocellulose degrading families, in which GH5, GH6, GH9, GH10, GH11, GH26, GH42, and GH43 were enriched in the FP consortium, and GH44, GH28, GH2, and GH29 increased in the CS consortium. The degradative mechanism of lignocellulose metabolism by the two microbial consortia is similar, but the annotation of quantity of genes indicated that they are diverse and vary greatly. The lignocellulolytic microbial consortia cultured under different carbon conditions (CS and FP) differed substantially in their composition of the microbial community at the genus level. The changes in functional diversity were accompanied with variation in the composition of microorganisms, many of which are related to the degradation of lignocellulolytic materials. The genera Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Sphingobacterium in CS and the genera Cellvibrio and Pseudomonas in FP exhibited a much wider distribution of lignocellulose degradative ability.
