Identification and biological characteristics of a newly isolated fungus Hypocrea lixii and its role in lignite bioconversion.

Fungus, named TZ1, was isolated from coal mine soil at the Fushunxi colliery, Liaoning Province, North of China. The lignite’s bioconversion rate was about 23.3% by TZ1. The morphological, biochemical, physiological characterization and analysis based on 18S rDNA gene sequence indicated that the strain TZ1 was most closely related to Hypocrea lixii (100% similarity in gene sequence), bioconversion lignite experiments with this new strain showed that it could play an important role in degradation of Chinese lignite.   Key words: Lignite, bio-conversion, Hypocrea lixii.