Pretreatment of paddy straw with Trametes hirsuta for improved enzymatic saccharification

► High ligninase and low cellulase activities of Trametes hirsuta MTCC136 in qualitative and quantitative enzyme assays. ► High extent of lignin break down, observed from high absorbance at 205 nm of the alkali extracts of pretreated paddy straw. ► Recovery of value-added acid-precipitable polymeric lignin (APPL) from the pretreated paddy straw. ► 52.69% saccharification efficiency of the biologically pretreated paddy straw after 72 h of incubation with a potent enzyme. Delignification of paddy straw with the white-rot fungus, Trametes hirsuta under solid state fermentation, for enhanced sugar recovery by enzymatic saccharification was studied. T. hirsuta MTCC136 showed high ligninase and low cellulase activities. Solid state fermentation of paddy straw with T. hirsuta enhanced carbohydrate content by 11.1% within 10days of incubation. Alkali extracts of Trametes pretreated paddy straw showed high absorbance at 205nm indicating high lignin break down. The amount of value-added lignin recovered from the Trametes pretreated paddy straw was much higher than controls. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the Trametes pretreated paddy straw yielded much higher sugars than controls and yields increased till 120h of incubation. Saccharification efficiency of the biologically pretreated paddy straw with Accelerase®1500 was 52.69% within 72h and was higher than controls. Thus, the study brings out the delignification potential of T. hirsuta for pretreatment of lignocellulosic substrate and facilitating efficient enzymatic digestibility of cellulose.