Higher conversions of xylan and glucan were seen with increases in both moisture content and inoculum size (Table 4), but no correlation was observed between the conversions and the relative amounts of inoculum and moisture (ratio of inoculum to moisture content; not shown). Thus, it is unlikely that these two parameters comprise an interaction effect that is important to the operation of the system. Lower moisture contents gave lower overall amounts of degradation, but seemingly better selectivities for xylan degradation although coefficients of variation for conversions were higher at low moisture contents owing to the smaller changes in overall composition. Higher moisture gave better overall degradation but poorer selectivity for xylan degradation. Selective xylan degradation may not have as great an effect on the properties of straw-thermoplastic composites as may overall degradation. In the present study, selectivity for xylan removal was a convenient proxy measure of relative activity of the inoculated fun­gus to indigenous microbes. However, there are other uses for treated straw feedstock, such as for production of fermentable sugars for fuels and chemi­cals, in which selective xylan removal would be useful. If achieving high selectivity for xylan degradation is important to the final use of the feed­stock, lower moisture levels would be preferred. Finally, higher inoculum was found to give faster overall degradation, which was expected.