LAUSR

BACKGROUND Rice straw (RS) is one of the largest sources of lignocellulosic, which is an abundant raw material for biofuels and chemicals. However, the natural degradation of RS under low temperature environment is the biggest obstacle of straw returning to field. RESULTS In this test, one bacillus strain W118 was isolated. Strain W118 was identified as Bacillus cereus through morphological and physiological characterization and 16S rDNA sequencing. The optimum growth temperature and pH of strain W118 were 20 °C and 6.5, respectively. Simultaneously, it found that the strain W118 grown well at low temperature, even at the temperature of 4 °C (OD600nm = 1.40 ± 0.01). The decrease of various mainly composition of RS after fermentation process at the temperature of 20 °C and 4 °C for 14 d were 27.00% ± 0.02% and 23.70% ± 0.04%, respectively. The composition of RS decreased 50.71% ± 0.02% after fermented at 4 °C for 25 d. The results of SEM, FTIR and XRD of RS showed that the mainly composition of RS were significant decreased. CONCLUSION This test suggests that the strain W118 is efficient for degrading RS at low temperature, which has great application potential in straw degradation in low temperature area. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.