Interestingly, when AH pre-treatment was performed after fungal treatment, the
increase in saccharification produced by this reference fungus was lower than that
observed for the control sample. The endophytic fungi caused a higher boost of
hydrolysis than the white-rot fungi, probing their high potential for enhancing
saccharification ofE. globuluswood. Other studies combined fungal pre-treatments
with white-rot or brown-rot fungi with chemical and physical methods so as to
improve saccharification yields (López-Abelairas et al. 2013 ; Wang et al. 2013 ; Gui
et al. 2013 ) and/or to decrease biotreatment times (Fu et al. 2013 ; Yu et al. 2009 ).
However, increases in saccharification were lower than that of observed with
endophytic strains. López-Abelairas et al. ( 2013 ) observed a glucose yield 3.9 and
4.6 times higher in wheat straw pre-treated with a thermal treatment and a fungal
treatment withPleorotus eryngiiorIrpex lacteus. Gui et al. ( 2013 ) obtained glucose
yields 1.7 times higher usingPycnoporus chrysosporiumcombined with 2.5%
sulphuric acid treatment than in acid-treatedGlycyrrhiza uralensisunder the similar
conditions. Wang et al. ( 2013 ) reported that fungal pre-treatment of poplar wood
withTrametes orientalisorFomitopsis palustrisbefore a FeCl 3 treatment increased
sugar yields 1.4 and 1.6 times more than FeCl 3 treatment without fungi. Yang et al.
( 2013 ) reported a similar value to that found in the endophytic fungi mentioned
before when poplar was treated with Trametes velutinaD10149 and alkaline
fractionation.
Fig. 12.4 Glucose concentrations during the enzymatic hydrolysis of the samples after fungal
treatments and those subjected to autohydrolysis (AH) before or after fungal pre-treatments.
Figure extracted from Martín-Sampedro et al. (2015b)
12 Potential of Lignin-Degrading Endophytic Fungi... 273