Enabling community-based metrology for wood-degrading fungi
Lignocellulosic biomass could support a greatly-expanded bioeconomy. Current strategies for using biomass typically rely on single-cell organisms and extensive ancillary equipment to produce precursors for downstream manufacturing processes. Alternative forms of bioproduction based on solid-state fermentation and wood-degrading fungi can enable more direct means of manufacture. However, such practices are often ad hoc and not readily reproducible. We sought to develop standard reference strains, substrates, measurements, and methods sufficient to begin to enable reliable reuse of mycological materials and products. Specifically, we show that a widely-available and globally-regularized consumer product (Pringles) can support the growth of wood-degrading fungi, and that growth on Pringles can be correlated with growth on a fully-traceable and compositionally characterized substrate (NIST Reference Material 8492 Eastern Cottonwood Biomass). So established, five laboratories were able to compare measurements of wood-fungus performance via a simple radial extension growth rate assay. Reliable reuse of materials, measures, and methods is necessary to enable distributed bioproduction processes that can be adopted at all scales, from local to industrial.