Screening of Microbial Consortium Capable of Degrading Cucumber Plant Straw and Exploration of Its Growth Promotion Effect
LI Xin，ZHANG Xu，LA Shikai，XIE Yingfei，CHEN Shijun，GAO Lihong，TIAN Yongqiang*
College of Horticulture，China Agricultural University，Beijing Key Laboratory of Growth and Development Regulation for
Protected Vegetable Crops，Beijing 100193，China
Abstract：In-situ incorporation of vegetable plant straw returning to fields can effectively avoid
resource waste and environment pollution，but there is short of microbial consortium（MC）capable
of degrading cucumber plant straw in actual production．Moreover，MC influence on crop growth is
undefined．Taking cucumber plant straw as test material，this experiment screened high-efficient MC capable
of degrading cucumber plant straw by special non-carbon culture medium and explored the efficacy of MC for
cucumber growth promotion．The results showed that the degradation rate of cucumber plant straw by MC
reached as high as 80.7%，and their degradation rates of cellulose，hemicellulose and lignin were 78.8%，
74.7% and 49.4%，respectively．The highest cellulase activity（0.110 4 IU）appeared on the 9 days after
treatment．The dominant communities in MC included 8 phyla and 12 genera．They could utilize 23 kinds
carbon source substances out of 31 kinds carbon source．33 single strains were isolated from MC，among
which 15 strains had the capacity of degrading cellulose．Results of seed and seedling tests showed that MC
could efficiently promote the growth of cucumber seed seedlings and seedlings when OD600 of MC reached
0.4．Taken together，the screened MC could not only effectively degrade cucumber plant straw，but also
promote the growth of cucumber ．
