Effect of Rhodococcus sp. pretreatment on cellulose hydrolysis of corn stalk

Pretreatment can improve the hydrolysis efficiency of cellulose, in which biological pretreatment plays an important role. In the present study, we uncovered that Rhodococcus has the ability of lignin degradation, which can decompose lignin and serve as a carbon source to meet the needs of its own growth. We used Rhodococcus to pretreat the corn stalks and evaluate the effect on cellulose hydrolysis. The concentration of reducing sugar produced by the hydrolysis of corn stalk after pretreatment of Rhodococcus is 2.95 g/L. SEM imaging showed that Rhodococcus pretreatment resulted the surface of corn stalk to be no longer complete, some lamellar structures fall off, and leave obvious traces, and obvious delamination was found at the edge of the fault. AFM imaging showed that the pretreatment changed the lignin structure of the corn stalk material surface, resulting in a higher surface roughness of 9.37. These results indicated that Rhodococcus pretreatment can improve the saccharification efficiency of cellulose by removing lignin and increasing the surface roughness of the material.