Diversity of microorganisms and enzymes involved on wheat straw transformation by microbiomes derived from cow rumen and termite gut

Lignocellulose (LC) is a renewable carbon source for energy and chemical production. Its degradation to fermentation products represents major economic and environmental issues, especially for the production of bio-based products such as second-generation biofuels. In the environment, the recycling of LC is realised by complex microbial communities that have selected the more efficient enzyme mixtures which, by a synergistic action, enable the bioconversion of LC. In this respect, microbial communities can be considered as potentially major biocatalyst for the production of synthons (e.g. carboxylates) and as purveyors of the optimized enzyme systems, in particular glycoside hydrolases (GH) that will be useful in industrial processes for LC biorefining.

Cow rumen and termite gut microbiomes are natural ecosystems known for their LC degradation capacity that can be exploited in LC biorefinery. However, little information exists on the dynamics of microorganisms and proteins involved in the LC deconstruction processes. Our aim was to shed light on the dynamic of microorganisms and their proteins by combining meta-genomics/proteomics and a transcriptomic approach targeting the GH genes and correlate this information with their LC degradation profiles. To this aim, we studied the lignocellulolytic capacities of termite N. ephratae and a cow-derived microbial consortia using wheat straw as sole carbon source. The multi-omics data obtained showed that these consortia presented important differences in the dynamic of functional species and proteins. In this presentation, insights in diversity and protein dynamics through the LC deconstruction process will be discussed, providing new information on by microbial consortia functioning.