The objective of this study was to assess the response of carbon utilization profiles to addition of ligninolytic enzymes and the relationship between the carbon utilization and lignin degradation. Ligninolytic enzymes were added into the initial composting materials as treatment, and the inactive ligninolytic enzymes were added into the composting materials as control. The results showed that the treatment increased the degradation ratio of lignin and hemicellulose by 5.24% and 11.74%, respectively (P<0.05), comparing to the result of control. Carbon utilization (measured by Biolog EocPlate (TM)) revealed that, in the treatment, average well-color development (AWCD) of amino acids was significantly enhanced after day 6 (P<0.05), while AWCD of carboxylic acids and polymers were increased after day 15. Principal component analysis confirmed the differentiation of the treatment and the control. The correlations between the lignin degradation and the Biolog indexes indicated that the presence of ligniolytic enzymes could enhance the activity of microorganisms. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.