Identification of a Coprinellus strain and its application in Eucommia ulmoides gum extraction by fermenting leaves

White rot fungi is a kind of filamentous fungi which can degrade lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose effectively. In this study, a wild white rot fungi collected from Pingba Town, Bijie City of China was identified as Coprinellus disseminatus (fruiting body) based on morphological and molecular identification. The mycelium of C. disseminatus cultured in the medium supplemented xylan as carbon showed the higher xylanase (XLE) and cellulase (CLE) activity. Further, the activities of tissue degradation-related enzymes including XLE, CLE, acetyl xylanesterase (AXE) and α-l-arabinofuran glycosidase (α-l-AF) were determined after fermenting Eucommia ulmoides leaves by inoculating C. disseminatus mycelium. The results showed that the activities of XLE, CLE, AXE and α-l-AF of mycelium cultured in xylan-contained medium reached the maximum at 5 d after inoculation, which were 777.606 ± 4.248 U mL−1, 9.594 ± 0.008 U mL−1, 4.567 ± 0.026 U mL−1 and 3.497 ± 0.10 U mL−1 respectively. Also, the activities of AXE and α-l-AF both reached the maximum in C. disseminatus mycelium cultured in glucose-contained medium. By comparing the yield of E. ulmoides gum under different fermentation treatments, the extraction yield of E. ulmoides gum were 2.156 ± 0.031% and 2.142 ± 0.044% at 7 d and 14 d after fermentation with mycelium supplemented xylan as carbon source, which were significantly higher than other groups. This study provides a theoretical reference for the preparation of E. ulmoides gum by large-scale fermentation of E. ulmoides leaves with C. disseminatus.