The use of chitosan is increasing in various industries, resulting in increased generation of chitosan-containing waste. Composting is the foremost method for management of such wastes, rendering it important to understand microbial diversity and effects of microbial inoculation on biodegradation process. Here, we investigated biodegradation of chitosan films in controlled composting reactors and analyzed microbial diversity via PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Then, we assessed the effects of microbial inoculation on chitosan biodegradation and monitored changes in microbial diversity in composting reactors. The dominant taxonomic groups at phylum level were Ascomycota and Proteobacteria. CO₂ emission data showed high degradation rate of chitosan in reactors inoculated with Group-I microorganisms, which are capable of producing chitosanase. This result was supported by the data obtained from TG and FTIR analyses. Compared with the control reactor containing only chitosan films (without microbial inoculum), Group-I inoculant improved the efficiency of chitosan biodegradation in composting reactors, while Group-II inoculant decreased the degradation rate. We have shown that appropriate selection of microbial strains for inoculum is important for chitosan biodegradation; specifically, strains producing different subclasses of chitosanase can be included. Thus, design and optimization of microbial community used for chitosan biodegradation will increase the efficiency of the process.

壳聚糖在各种工业中的使用在增加，导致含壳聚糖的废物的产生增加。堆肥是处理此类废物的最主要方法，因此了解微生物多样性以及微生物接种对生物降解过程的影响非常重要。在这里，我们研究了可控堆肥反应器中壳聚糖膜的生物降解，并通过PCR变性梯度凝胶电泳（DGGE）分析了微生物多样性。然后，我们评估了微生物接种对壳聚糖生物降解的影响，并监测了堆肥反应堆中微生物多样性的变化。在门类水平上，主要的分类学组是子囊菌和变形杆菌。一氧化碳₂排放数据显示，在接种能够产生壳聚糖酶的I组微生物的反应器中，壳聚糖的降解率很高。TG和FTIR分析获得的数据支持了这一结果。与仅包含壳聚糖膜（不含微生物接种物）的对照反应器相比，I组接种剂提高了堆肥反应器中壳聚糖生物降解的效率，而II组接种剂降低了降解速率。我们已经表明，接种的微生物菌种的合适选择是壳聚糖生物降解重要; 具体地，可以包括产生壳聚糖酶的不同亚类的菌株。因此，用于壳聚糖生物降解的微生物群落的设计和优化将提高该过程的效率。