Meta-omics based analyses of microbiome involved in biomethanation of rice straw in a thermophilic anaerobic bioreactor under optimized conditions.

Biomethanation of rice straw was performed at 55 °C without thermochemical pretreatment using cattle dung supplemented with Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus strains. Methane yield of 323 ml g-1 VS obtained under optimized conditions such as particle size (1 mm), carbon to nitrogen ratio (15:1), substrate to inoculum ratio (1:1), organic loading rate (7.5% w/v) and hydraulic retention time (20 days), was one of the highest ever reported from rice straw. Metagenome analysis revealed several putative novel taxa among resident microbes. The genomes of Clostridium, Hungateiclostridium, Alkaliphilus, Anaerocolumna, Olsenella, Paenibacillus, Pseudoclostridium, Tepidanaerobacter and Turicibacter were recovered as metagenome assisted genomes. Clostridium spp. and M. thermautotrophicus were the dominant hydrolytic and methanogenic microbes, respectively. Syntrophic acetate oxidation coupled to hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was found to be the major pathway for methane production. Efficient thermophilic biomethanation of rice straw without thermochemical pretreatment using cattle dung supplemented with M. thermautotrophicus is reported for the first time.