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

Abstract

A comprehensive profile 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 influenced 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 efficient environmental management utilization. Current findings suggest that transformation of fruit waste into seed germination friendly compost that can be used as an efficient organic fertilizer and incorporation of sensitive molecular technique suggests the transition of microbial community and improvement in microbial diversity.

Effectiveness of compost inoculated with phosphate solubilizing bacteria

“…The transformation of biodegradable materials stabilizes the organic matter and results in the production of biomass and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (Milanović et al, 2019). It is a cost‐effective material that can be derived from the waste or by‐products (Danish et al, 2021; Obiri‐Nyarko et al, 2019). The thermophilic stage kills harmful pathogens and weed seeds (Jain & Kalamdhad, 2019).…”