Furthermore, a broad range of lignocellulose
degrading activities was recovered from spent mushroom
compost including cellulose degrading activities such as
endoglucanase, cellobiohydrolase and β-glucosidase activities,
xylan degrading activities such as acetylesterase and arabinofuranosidase
activities and peroxidase activity. Although it is
not clear in all cases whether these activities are exclusively
produced by A. bisporus or by other micro-organisms still
present in the compost, tests in vitro indicate that the fungus
can degrade most of the plant-derived fractions of the
compost. For a number of the detected activities, the
responsible enzymes were characterized and}or the encoding
genes cloned