Microbial community structure changes during oyster mushroom substrate preparation

Although oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp.) is a valuable food, cultivated worldwide on an industrial scale, still very little is known about the microbial dynamics during oyster mushroom substrate preparation. Therefore, the characterization of the microbial dynamics by chemical and biological tools was the objective of this study. During substrate preparation, enzymatic digestibility of the substrate improved by 77%, whereas the cellulose and hemicellulose to lignin ratios decreased by 9% and 19%, respectively. Fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis reached its minimum value at the temperature maximum of the process during the composting phase and exceeded the initial level at the end of the process. Fungal species played part in the initial mesophilic phase of the substrate preparation process, but they disappeared after pasteurization in tunnels at constant elevated temperatures. Changes in the microbiota showed a marked bacterial community succession during substrate preparation investigated by 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid-based terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). Mature samples represented the least variance, which indicated the effect of the standardized preparation protocol. The relation between mushroom yield and the bacterial community T-RFLP fingerprints was investigated, but the uniformity of mushroom yields did not support any significant correlation.