Journal Article
mBio, vol. 12, iss. 3, 2021
Authors
Stephen P. Lillington, William Chrisler, Charles H. Haitjema, Sean P. Gilmore, Chuck R. Smallwood, Vaithiyalingam Shutthanandan, James E. Evans, Michelle A. O’Malley, John W. Taylor
Abstract
Anaerobic fungi (
Neocallimastigomycota
) isolated from the guts of herbivores excel at degrading ingested plant matter, making them attractive potential platform organisms for converting waste biomass into valuable products, such as chemicals and fuels. Major contributors to their biomass-hydrolyzing power are the multienzyme cellulosome complexes that anaerobic fungi produce, but knowledge gaps in how cellulosome production is controlled by the cellular life cycle and how cells spatially deploy cellulosomes complicate the use of anaerobic fungi and their cellulosomes in industrial bioprocesses.
