Scientists from the University of Mississippi explored the pretreatment of corn stover (lignin depolymerization) prior to ethanol fermentation by bacterial conditioning. (Bacterial conditioning can be considered as partial degradation of lignocellulosics in corn stover by the addition of bacteria with lignolytic/cellulolytic activity. This would make the ethanol fermentation step easier). The bacterial conditioning agents were inocula prepared from guts of insects that are known to digest wood. Inocula were obtained from cultures from dissected guts of termites, beetles, etc. From weight loss experiments during solid substrate fermentations (SSF), four out of 14 sources that were obtained from midgut were found to show weight loss in the pretreated corn stover; negligible weight loss was observed in untreated corn stover. Further studies are reported to be done to characterize bacterial flora in the insect guts and to determine their response to operating conditions like pH and temperature..