Two white rot fungi are used in this study. The first fungus, I. lacteus CD2 (GenBank accession number: FJ744594) was isolated from the Shennongjia Nature Reserve (Hubei, China) and belongs to the Steccherinaceae family, Polyporales order. I. lacteus CD2 can degrade lignin without ligninase detected [20]. The second fungus,A. polytricha AP is a cultivated species obtained from the Culture Collection Center,Huazhong Agricultural University (Hubei, China). It belongs to the Auriculariaceae family, Auriculariales order. The two fungi can grow well in lignocellulosic substrate and co-cultivate in liquid and solid substrate. They were maintained on PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) slants at 4 ◦C and sub-cultured for one week before use, then inoculated onto the center of 9 cm PDA plates at 28 ◦C for one week. Five discs cut from the margin of active fungal cultures on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates were inoculated into 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask with 100 ml of potato dextrose broth (PDB) medium (pH 5.5) and incubated at 28 ◦C, 150 r/min for 5–7 days. The mycelia were
washed, homogenized, and resuspended with 100 ml distilled water to be used as an inoculum.