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mBio 2022 May 23:e0062822. Epub 2022 May 23.

Microbiology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht Universitygrid.5477.1, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Wood-decaying fungi of the class Agaricomycetes (phylum Basidiomycota) are saprotrophs that break down lignocellulose and play an important role in nutrient recycling. They secrete a wide range of extracellular plant cell wall degrading enzymes that break down cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, the main building blocks of plant biomass. Although the production of these enzymes is regulated mainly at the transcriptional level, no activating regulators have been identified in any wood-decaying fungus in the class Agaricomycetes. Read More

Integr Comp Biol 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK 73019.

The gut microbial communities of mammals provide numerous benefits to their hosts. However, given the recent development of the microbiome field, we still lack a thorough understanding of the variety of ecological and evolutionary factors that structure these communities across species. Metabarcoding is a powerful technique that allows for multiple microbial ecology questions to be investigated simultaneously. Read More

Biotechnol Adv 2022 May 14:107981. Epub 2022 May 14.

Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.

Microbes and their carbohydrate-active enzymes are central for depolymerization of complex lignocellulosic polysaccharides in the global carbon cycle. Their unique abilities to degrade and ferment carbohydrates are also utilized in many industrial processes such as baking, brewing and production of biofuels and drugs. Effective degradation and utilization of cellulose and hemicelluloses is important for the shift towards green bioeconomy, and requires microbes equipped with proper sets of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). Read More

Plants (Basel) 2022 Apr 20;11(9). Epub 2022 Apr 20.

Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.

Plant β-glucanases are enzymes involved in the synthesis, remodelling and turnover of cell wall components during multiple physiological processes. Based on the type of the glycoside bond they cleave, plant β-glucanases have been grouped into three categories: (i) β-1,4-glucanases degrade cellulose and other polysaccharides containing 1,4-glycosidic bonds to remodel and disassemble the wall during cell growth. (ii) β-1,3-glucanases are responsible for the mobilization of callose, governing the symplastic trafficking through plasmodesmata. Read More

Int J Mol Sci 2022 May 6;23(9). Epub 2022 May 6.

Department of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Food Technology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria.

Lignocelluloytic enzymes are industrially applied as biocatalysts for the deconstruction of recalcitrant plant biomass. To study their biocatalytic and physiological function, the assessment of their binding behavior and spatial distribution on lignocellulosic material is a crucial prerequisite. In this study, selected hydrolases and oxidoreductases from the white rot fungus were localized on model substrates as well as poplar wood by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Read More

Nat Commun 2022 May 12;13(1):2634. Epub 2022 May 12.

University of Alberta, Biological Sciences CW405, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada.

Lichen symbioses are thought to be stabilized by the transfer of fixed carbon from a photosynthesizing symbiont to a fungus. In other fungal symbioses, carbohydrate subsidies correlate with reductions in plant cell wall-degrading enzymes, but whether this is true of lichen fungal symbionts (LFSs) is unknown. Here, we predict genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) and sugar transporters in 46 genomes from the Lecanoromycetes, the largest extant clade of LFSs. Read More

Environ Pollut 2022 May 4;306:119385. Epub 2022 May 4.

College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510641, China; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address:

The microbial communities associated with microplastics (MPs) and their ambient environments have received wide attention. Although previous studies have reported the differences of microbial communities between MPs and natural environment or substrates, the effects of MPs on microbial balance and functions in ambient water remain unclear, particularly for aquaculture water. Here, we investigated the MPs pollution in farm ponds of grass carp located in the Foshan City of Guangdong Province and reported the distinction of bacterial structures, functions, and complexity between microbiota on MPs and in water. Read More

Anim Nutr 2022 Jun 24;9:100-109. Epub 2022 Jan 24.

Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Dairy Products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, China.

Improving silage production by adding exogenous microorganisms not only maximizes nutrient preservation, but also extends product shelf life. Herein, changes in the quality and quantity of PS-8 (PS-8) -inoculated alfalfa () during silage fermentation were monitored at d 0, 7, 14, and 28 (inoculum dose of PS-8 was 1 × 10 colony forming units [cfu]/g fresh weight; 50 kg per bag; 10 bags for each time point) by reconstructing metagenomic-assembled genomes (MAG) and Growth Rate InDex (GRiD). Our results showed that the exogenous starter bacterium, PS-8 inoculation, became the most dominating strain by d 7, and possibly played a highly active role throughout the fermentation process. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 1:155654. Epub 2022 May 1.

Bioresource Processing Research Institute of Australia (BioPRIA), Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia. Electronic address:

Plastic packaging is causing a serious environmental concern owing to its difficulty in degrading and micro-particulates' emissions. Developing biodegradable films has gained research attention to overcome ecological and health issues associated with plastic based packaging. One alternative substitute for petroleum-based plastic is nanocellulose based films, having distinguishing characteristics such as biodegradability, renewability, and non-toxicity. Read More

Food Chem X 2022 Mar 23;13:100265. Epub 2022 Feb 23.

Institute of Postharvest Technology of Agricultural Products, College of Food Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.

Effects of acidic electrolyzed water (AEW) treatment (pH = 2.5, ACC = 80 mg L, 10 min) on pulp firmness, amounts of CWM and CWP, activities and expression of relevant genes of CWDEs in pulp of Fuyan longan during storage at 25 °C were evaluated. Compared to control samples, during storage, AEW-treated fruit retained a higher pulp firmness, prevented WSP formation, reduced the degradation of CSP, cellulose and hemicellulose, and lowered CWDEs activities and their corresponding gene expression. Read More

Front Microbiol 2022 11;13:816954. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Institute of Ensiling and Processing of Grass, College of Agro-grassland Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Most arthropod guts harbor diverse microbiota for symbiotic digestion. The European corn borer (ECB), (Hübner), is a devastating pest that feeds the lignocellulose-rich tissues of maize plants. However, the potential role of ECB gut microbes in degrading maize cellulose remains largely unexplored. Read More

Bioresour Technol 2022 Jun 25;354:127216. Epub 2022 Apr 25.

Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, People' Republic of China; Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu, People' Republic of China.

Humus is the final product of humus precursors (HPS) during the humification process, while the associated mechanisms of humus formation have not been clarified. Here, the HPS degradation intermediate and core fungal function for wheat straw and chicken manure compost (SCM), cow dung compost (CD), Chinese traditional medicine residue compost (CTM) and mushroom dreg and chicken manure compost (MCM) was investigated during the thermophilic phase. The results showed SCM and MCM were rich in proteins, lipids, cellulose, low-molecular-weight organic acids, while CD and CTM contained abundant carbohydrates, aliphatic compounds, easily biodegradable aromatic structures, and intermediates from the lignocellulose degradation. Read More

J Agric Food Chem 2022 May 22;70(17):5299-5309. Epub 2022 Apr 22.

College of Life Science, Shaoxing University, Zhejiang 312000, P. R. China.

Application of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) has been widely used to inhibit nitrification and reduce NO emissions. However, the impacts of NI addition on soil carbon transformation and carbon-degrading microbial communities have not been well explored. Here, a microcosm experiment was carried out, and four treatments were designed: (i) unfertilized control, (ii) urea alone, (iii) urea plus cattle manure, and (iv) urea plus cattle manure with nitrapyrin. Read More

J Adv Vet Anim Res 2022 Mar 14;9(1):19-32. Epub 2022 Jan 14.

Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Objectives: The research aims to analyze the catabolic strength of different hydrolytic enzymes in assessing the biological conversion potential of lignocellulose parts of agricultural biomass wastes into functional edible sugars and biofuels.

Materials And Methods: The enzymes' hydrolytic properties-versatile peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, and lignin peroxidase were used to identify their complexing strength with the lignin substrate, whereas endoglucanase cel12A, acidocaldarius cellulase, and Melanocarpus albomyces endoglucanase were tested on the cellulose gel substrate. Because the biodegradation properties are heavily influenced by the "enzyme-substrate complexing energy level," proper molecular optimization and energy minimization of the enzymes and substrates were carried out, as well as the identification of the enzyme's active sites prior to complexing. Read More

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2022 Apr 18;106(8):2993-3007. Epub 2022 Apr 18.

Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), Università Degli Studi Di Torino, 25 Viale P.A. Mattioli, 10125, Torino, Italy.

Fungal dye-decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs) have found applications in the treatment of dye-contaminated industrial wastes or to improve biomass digestibility. Their roles in fungal biology are uncertain, although it has been repeatedly suggested that they could participate in lignin degradation and/or modification. Using a comprehensive set of 162 fully sequenced fungal species, we defined seven distinct fungal DyP clades on basis of a sequence similarity network. Read More

Appl Environ Microbiol 2022 May 13;88(9):e0023922. Epub 2022 Apr 13.

Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State Universitygrid.17088.36, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.

Erwinia amylovora is a plant-pathogenic bacterium that causes fire blight disease in many economically important plants, including apples and pears. This bacterium produces three exopolysaccharides (EPSs), amylovoran, levan, and cellulose, and forms biofilms in host plant vascular tissues, which are crucial for pathogenesis. Here, we demonstrate that ProQ, a conserved bacterial RNA chaperone, was required for the virulence of E. Read More

Food Chem 2022 Sep 7;387:132921. Epub 2022 Apr 7.

Agricultural Mechanization Institute, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, PR China. Electronic address:

To avoid chilling injury (CI) of apricots during storage, 1-2 °C and 4-6 °C storage as controls, the relationship between changes in cell wall characteristics and the occurrences of chilling injury under near-freezing temperature (NFT) storage was studied. NFT-stored improved apricots quality and inhibited CI index, membrane permeability and malondialdehyde (MDA) content; This also significantly inhibited the activity of cell wall modifying enzymes, delaying the solubilization of water-soluble pectin (WSP) and the degradation of cellulose. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging revealed that the density of the middle lamella in stored for 49 d was higher NFT than controlled temperature, delaying cell wall and chloroplast disintegration. Read More

Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2022 Apr;72(4)

Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, PR China.

A novel lignin-degrading actinobacterium, designated NEAU-G5, was isolated from pumpkin rhizosphere soil collected from field in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, and characterized using polyphasic approach. The prior 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities and phylogenic analysis showed that strain NEAU-G5 exhibited close phylogenetic relatedness to NBRC 108239 (98.82 %), NBRC 15556 (98. Read More

Chemosphere 2022 Apr 5;301:134518. Epub 2022 Apr 5.

Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Chungdae-ro 1, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, 28644, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

Nitrophenols(NPs) are highly toxic compounds that occur in various industrial effluents. Herein, we investigated Cu nanoparticle-loaded cellulose nanofibril (CNF/PEI-Cu) aerogels as a catalyst for degrading 4-nitrophenol (4NP) in the wastewater. Non-noble metal based low-cost catalyst material and easily scalable preparation method make CNF/PEI-Cu aerogel as an appropriate catalyst for practical application in 4NP wastewater treatment. Read More

Front Microbiol 2022 18;13:844264. Epub 2022 Mar 18.

Laboratoire Vigne Biotechnologies et Environnement UR-3991, Université de Haute Alsace, Colmar, France.

is a fungus associated with some of the Esca complex diseases and responsible for decay in grapevine wood. Its role in the onset of foliar symptoms has recently been reconsidered, mainly after evidence showing a reduction in foliar symptom expression after removal of rotten wood. The study of its degradation pathways has already been approached by other authors, and with this study much information is consolidated. Read More

Plant Physiol Biochem 2022 May 17;179:168-178. Epub 2022 Mar 17.

Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa.

Russian wheat aphid (RWA) is one of the most challenging pests for wheat crops globally. In South Africa, RWA has breached the strategy of introducing resistant genes into wheat plants, and so far, five RWA biotypes with different virulence levels have been documented in the field. Our study investigated how the cell wall plays a defensive role in Tugela-Dn1 (susceptible) and-Dn5 (resistant) cultivars infested with South African RWA-biotype 2 (RWASA2). Read More

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2022 Apr 30;106(7):2503-2516. Epub 2022 Mar 30.

Programa de Processos Tecnológicos e Ambientais, University of Sorocaba (UNISO), Sorocaba, SP, Brazil.

The biocatalytic production of fuels and chemicals from plant biomass represents an attractive alternative to fossil fuel-based refineries. In this context, the mining and characterization of novel biocatalysts can promote disruptive innovation opportunities in the field of lignocellulose conversion and valorization. In the present work, we conducted the biochemical and structural characterization of two novel hydroxycinnamic acid catabolic enzymes, isolated from a lignin-degrading microbial consortium, a feruloyl-CoA synthetase, and a feruloyl-CoA hydratase-lyase, named LM-FCS2 and LM-FCHL2, respectively. Read More

Bioresour Technol 2022 May 26;352:127076. Epub 2022 Mar 26.

Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Environmental Toxicology Group, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow 226001, Uttar Pradesh, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201002, India. Electronic address:

The effective degradation of KL from paper mill effluent is an important for environmental safety. This research is primarily concerned with the identification of KL-degrading Bacillus cereus from activated sludge and their possible use for the degradation of Kraft lignin (KL). This strain was involved in the production of lignin peroxidase-LiP (3. Read More

Microorganisms 2022 Mar 21;10(3). Epub 2022 Mar 21.

Key Laboratory of Plant Immunity, Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.

Roots hold complex microbial communities at the soil-root interface, which can affect plant nutrition, growth, and health. Although the composition of plant microbiomes has been extensively described for various plant species and environments, little is known about the effect of wheat straw return (WSR) on the soybean root microbiota. We used Illumina-based 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing to track changes in bacterial and fungal microbiota in bulk soil and soybean rhizosphere, rhizoplane, s1and endosphere during the third and fourth years after implementing WSR in a wheat-soybean rotation system. Read More

Molecules 2022 Mar 14;27(6). Epub 2022 Mar 14.

Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Ministry of Education, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China.

  is common in the horse intestine, alleviates the infection of , and regulates intestinal flora. Despite this, there have been no genomic studies on this species. Here, we provide the genomic basis for adaptation to the intestinal habitat of this species. Read More

Mar Drugs 2022 Feb 23;20(3). Epub 2022 Feb 23.

School of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China.

Improved methods for the extraction of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), an essential and economically important polyunsaturated fatty acid, are urgently required. However, lipid extraction rates using food-grade solvents such as ethanol are usually low. To improve the ethanol-based extraction rate, and to elucidate the relevant mechanisms, we used cellulase and laccase to treat powdered , one of the most promising microalgal sources of EPA. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 Mar 22. Epub 2022 Mar 22.

Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China.

Lignocellulose degradation (LCD) was the key factor limiting the development of anaerobic fermentation (AF) by the cow dung (CD). In the research, the effects of cellulase pretreatment (CP) and microvoltage (MV) alone and combination on the gas production and LCD during the AF were investigated. The results showed that both CP and MV had an significant effect on the AF, though the synergistic reaction was more pronounced. Read More

PeerJ 2022 8;10:e13042. Epub 2022 Mar 8.

Guangxi Key Laboratory for Aquatic Genetic Breeding and Healthy Aquaculture, Guangxi Academy of Fishery Sciences, Nanning, China.

is an important economic value snail species with high medicinal value. The gut microbes of aquatic animals plays a vital role in food digestion and nutrient absorption. Herein, we aimed at high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA to further investigate whether there were differences in the composition and function of gut microbes of adult and juvenile snails, as well as sediments. Read More

BMC Res Notes 2022 Mar 10;15(1):99. Epub 2022 Mar 10.

Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA.

Objective: Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) is an effective approach to study the evolution behavior of bacterial cultures and to select for strains with desired metabolic features. In this study, we explored the possibility of evolving Thermotoga sp. strain RQ7 for cellulose-degrading abilities. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 03 4;19(5). Epub 2022 Mar 4.

State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China.

To achieve carbon (C) neutrality and mitigate climate change, it is crucial to understand how converting natural forests to agricultural plantations influences soil organic C (SOC) mineralization. In this study, we investigated the impact of converting evergreen broadleaf forests (EBF) to extensively managed Moso bamboo ( (Carriere) J. Houzeau) plantations (MBP) in subtropical China on SOC mineralization rate; the concentrations of labile SOC fractions such as dissolved organic C (DOC), microbial biomass C (MBC), and readily oxidizable C (ROC); the activities of C-degrading enzymes (cellobiohydrolase and phenol oxidase); and the abundance of C-degrading enzyme-encoding genes (I and ). Read More