Abstract: The aim of this study was to isolate the thermophilic bacterial community with cellulose degradation capacity, and then to solve the rapid degradation problem of cellulose during the composting process. A cellulose-degradation bacterial community, named PN-8 was constructed by the continuous selective culture, and the characteristics and composition of PN-8 was also investigated and analyzed in this study. During the degradation process of rice straw, the pH value of PN-8 suspension firstly dropped then ascended, and the optimum degradation temperature for PN-8 was 55 ℃ with higher degradation ratio up to 80.9%. Through streak plate approach, five bacteria strains were isolated from PN-8. According to the sequence identification, four strains belonged to Bacillales namely Ureibacillus suwonensis，Bacillus thermoamylovorans，Ureibacillus thermosphaericus and Bacillus borbori respectively. Other strain belongded to Serratia sp.. The high-throughput sequencing data showed the consistent result that the Bacillaceae was the predominant bacterial strains in PN-8, accounting for 31.83%. The principal functional bacteria in PN-8 were Bacillaceae, and their favourable cellulose degradation capacity at high temperature would potentially improve the speed and quality of compost.