Yeast culture enhances long-term fermentation of corn straw by ruminal microbes for volatile fatty acid production: Performance and mechanism

Jinsong Liang; Shiqi Liu; Ru Zhang; Jianning Chang; Longyi Lv; Mohammad Nabi; Guangming Zhang; Panyue Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122736

Yeast culture enhances long-term fermentation of corn straw by ruminal microbes for volatile fatty acid production: Performance and mechanism

J Environ Manage. 2024 Oct 2:370:122736. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122736. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jinsong Liang¹, Shiqi Liu¹, Ru Zhang², Jianning Chang², Longyi Lv¹, Mohammad Nabi³, Guangming Zhang⁴, Panyue Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy & Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300130, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
³ Environmental Science and Engineering Program, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, 515063, China.
⁴ School of Energy & Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300130, China. Electronic address: 2020017@hebut.edu.cn.
⁵ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China. Electronic address: panyue_zhang@bjfu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39362162
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122736

Abstract

Ruminal microbes can efficiently ferment biomass waste to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs). However, keeping long-term efficient VFA production efficiency has become a bottleneck. In this study, yeast culture (YC) was used to enhance the VFA production in long-term fermentation. Results showed that YC group improved the volatile solid removal and VFA concentration to 47.8% and 7.82 g/L, respectively, 18.6% and 16.1% higher than the control, mainly enhancing the acetic, propionic, and butyric acid production. YC addition reduced the bacterial diversity, changed the bacterial composition, and improved interactions among bacteria. The regulation mechanism of YC was to increase the abundance and activity of hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria such as Prevotella and Treponema, improve bacterial interactions, and further promote expression of functional genes. Ultimately, a long-term efficient ruminal fermentation of corn straw into VFAs was achieved.

Keywords: Biomass waste; Functional genes; Long-term ruminal fermentation; Ruminal microbes; Volatile fatty acids; Yeast culture.