Characterization of digestate microbial community structure following thermophilic anaerobic digestion with varying levels of green and food wastes Fernández Bayo, Jesús Dionisio Simmons, Christopher W. VanderGheynst, Jean S. Anaerobic digestion Green Waste Food waste microbial community structure This work was funded by the UC Davis Sustainability Research and Training Program and Diamond Developers under collaboration identification number 201500317, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture project CA-D-BAE-2228-RR. Sequencing was conducted by the Joint Genome Institute, which is supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy [contract DE-AC02-05CH11231]. The properties of digestates generated through anaerobic digestion are influenced by interactions between the digester microbial communities, feedstock properties and digester operating conditions. This study investigated the effect of varying initial feedstock carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratios on digestate microbiota and predicted abundance of genes encoding lignocellulolytic activity. The C/N ratio had a significant impact on the digestate microbiome. Feedstocks with intermediate C/N ratio (20–27) (where higher biomethane potential was observed) showed higher relative abundance of archaea compared to feedstocks with C/N ratios at 17 and 34. Within microbial networks, four microbial clusters and eight connector microorganisms changed significantly with the C/N ratio (P < 0.05). Feedstocks with C/N < 23 were richer in organisms from the family Thermotogaceae and genus Caldicoprobacter and enhanced potential for degradation of maltose, galactomannans, melobiose and lactose. This study provides new insights into how anaerobic digestion conditions relate to the structure and functional potential of digester microbial communities, which may be relevant to both digester performance and subsequent utilization of digestates for composting or amending soil. 2026-02-11T10:24:49Z 2026-02-11T10:24:49Z 2020-10-30 journal article Fernandez-Bayo, J.D., Simmons, C.W. & VanderGheynst, J.S. (2020) Characterization of digestate microbial community structure following thermophilic anaerobic digestion with varying levels of green and food wastes. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-020-02326-z https://hdl.handle.net/10481/110868 10.1007/s10295-020-02326-z eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Springer Nature