Succession and Catabolic Properties of Fungal Community During Composting of Fruit Waste at Sub-Tropical Environment

Abstract

A comprehensive pro le of structural and functional dynamics of fungal community during fruit waste composting was investigated. For this purpose, fruit waste was composted in a windrow setup. Representative samples were collected at varied range of incubation temperatures during composting period and employed to physicochemical and microbiological culture dependent and independent analysis. Time-series data revealed that variation in fungal load is temperature dependent that in uenced morphotypes' shifts during different stages of composting. Shifts in abiotic factors, availability of accessible nutrients, water loss, pH and electrical conductivity participated in the transition of community and compost maturity. Culture-based analysis showed rich microbial compost community, dominant with Aspergillus, Mucor, Rhizopus and Penicillium. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analyses demonstrated the prevalence of diverse community in compost with detectable bands corresponding to Penicillium at mesophilic temperature while undetectable bands corresponding for Aspergillus. Succession in microbial community was observed during composting as with temperature variations. Illumina Miseq revealed fungal diversity including Mortierella sp from phylum Zygomycota as the most dominant fungi and Coprinopsis sp as second dominant from Basidiomycota, mainly associated with lignocellulosic degradation. Moreover, Aspergillus fumigatus (ADIF1) was found as the most promising cellulase and pectinase producers at higher temperature showing its potential for e cient environmental management utilization. Current ndings suggest that transformation of fruit waste into seed germination friendly compost that can be used as an e cient organic fertilizer and incorporation of sensitive molecular technique suggests the transition of microbial community and improvement in microbial diversity. Statement Of NoveltyEven though numerous studies have looked at the signi cance of microbial communities in composting, there is still potential for more research into microbial populations due to their variability based on feedstock and environmental conditions. Therefore, this study is envisaged to determine the fungal diversity of organic compost using local indigenous waste via standard plate count, DGGE and next generation sequencing. It was observed that using a culture-based approach alone is insu cient, and that combining it with sequencing uncovered an uncultured fungal population that is catabolically diverse and plays a prominent role in producing germination friendly compost. We believe that the manuscript ndings will provide valuable insights into the microbial-driven composting of fruit waste, that can aid in rapid co-composting of lignocellulosic waste.

Effects of Regular Water Replenishment on Enzyme Activities and Fungal Metabolic Function of Sheep Manure Composting on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

“…Fungi play an important role in the degradation of recalcitrant compounds, stabilization of organic matter, and breakdown of organic residues under dry, acidic, and low-level nitrogen conditions [15,16]. Currently, there are many studies on fungal communities in composting, including different raw compost materials [17][18][19][20], additives [21][22][23][24], and environmental factors [25,26].…”