Characterization of the Microbial Communities in Rumen Fluid Inoculated Reactors for the Biogas Digestion of Wheat Straw

The present study investigated the effect of rumen fluid (RF) concentration on the methane production through anaerobic digestion of wheat straw in batch mode, and compared the microbial communities in RF and RF inoculated reactors by 16S rRNA genes sequencing. Six levels of RF concentration including 1%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% (v/v) were used in reactors R1, R5, R10, R15, R20 and R25 respectively. The results revealed that lower than or equal to 5% RF concentrations resulted in reactor acidification and low methane production. The highest methane yield of 106 mL·CH4· g·VS−1 was achieved in R10, whereas higher RF concentrations than 10% could not improve the methane production significantly. Methanosarcina barkeri was abundant in the well-working reactors, and Methanobacterium was dominant in the poor-working reactors, implying the archaeal communities in reactors had changed greatly from the Methanobrevibacter-dominated RF. Although the relative abundance of Clostridium and Ruminococcus were greatly different between RF and reactors, the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes communities were dominant in all the tested samples. The results indicated that the in vitro anaerobic conditions had altered the rumen methanogenic communities significantly and the facultative acetoclastic Methanosarcina was important for the methane production in the RF seeded reactors.