FIG 3.
Selection of the minimal and effective lignocellulolytic microbial consortium (MELMC) using the dilution-to-extinction approach. (A) Microbial cell density (optical density at 600 nm), viable and cultivable bacterial cells (CFU per milliliter), and average substrate weight loss (percent) in three biological replicates (R1, R2, and R3) after incubation of the inoculated dilutions (10−3 to 10−11) created from microbial consortium T6, decreasing its diversity levels. The negative control did not contain a microbial inoculum. (B) Observed amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) and Shannon index values within consortium T6 and after growth at 10−3, 10−5, and 10−7 dilutions in each biological replicate. (C) PCoA plot based on weighted UniFrac distances that shows the bacterial community similarity between T6 and the selected consortia after the growth at 10−3, 10−5, and 10−7 dilutions.