en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Feed Processing and Quality Safety Innovation Team of the Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has recently revealed the molecular mechanism of synergistic degradation of wheat straw by endogenous enzymes and symbiotic bacteria in the gut of superworm larvae. The findings have been published in Green Carbon.

Straw is an important agricultural waste resource in China, but its structure contains dense components such as lignin, making efficient biodegradation and high-value utilization challenging. Superworms are resource insects with potential for both feed and food development, capable of converting agricultural waste into high-quality insect protein. However, the molecular mechanism underlying their efficient utilization of straw had previously lacked systematic analysis.

The study found that superworms can directly feed on wheat straw, maintaining a high survival rate even when straw is the sole feed source, and continuously converting straw into nutrients required for their growth. The team identified a key cellulose oxidase that first breaks down the crystalline structure of cellulose and works synergistically with other cellulases to enhance cellulose degradation efficiency. Meanwhile, researchers isolated a novel bacterial strain with high lignin-degrading capacity, which produces degrading enzymes such as laccase and manganese peroxidase, progressively dismantling the lignin barrier and creating conditions for cellulose degradation. The host enzymes of superworms and gut symbiotic bacteria form a synergistic "insect-microbe synergy" mechanism for lignocellulose degradation, providing a new theoretical basis for straw bioconversion.

This research was supported by the Major Science and Technology Task of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS-ZDRW202303) and other projects.