Abstract

ABSTRACTBrown-rot fungi are rapid holocellulose degraders and are the most predominant degraders of coniferous wood products in North America. Brown-rot fungi degrades wood by both enzymatic (plant biomass degrading carbohydrate active enzymes-CAZymes) and non-enzymatic systems (Fenton’s reaction) mechanisms. Identifying the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in Fenton’s reaction would significantly improve our understanding about brown-rot decay. Our present study identifies the common gene expression patterns involved in brown rot decay by performing metadata analysis of fungal transcriptome datasets. We have also analyzed and compared the genome-wide annotations (InterPro and CAZymes) of the selected brown rot fungi. Genes encoding for various oxidoreductases, iron homeostasis, and metabolic enzymes involved in Fenton’s mechanism were found to be significantly expressed among all the brown-rot fungal datasets. Interestingly, a higher number of hemicellulases encoding genes were differentially expressed among all the datasets, while a fewer number of cellulases and peroxidases were expressed (especially haem peroxidase and chloroperoxidase). Apart from these lignocellulose degrading enzymes genes encoding for aldo/keto reductases, 2-nitro dioxygenase, aromatic-ring dioxygenase, dienelactone hydrolase, alcohol dehydrogenase, major facilitator superfamily, cytochrome-P450 monoxygenase, cytochrome b5, and short-chain dehydrogenase were common and differentially up regulated among all the analyzed brown-rot fungal datasets.

Highlights

  • Woody biomass constitutes the most abundant organic biomass on the earth’s surface

  • Among the selected brown rot fungi, R. placenta, W. cocos, and F. radiculosa belong to the order polyporales, while the other selected brown rot fungi S. lacrymans, C. puteana, and H. pinastri belong to the order boletales

  • Brown-rot fungi are considered rapid holocellulose degraders, though they do not code for lignin depolymerising enzymes, they access cellulose and hemicellulose by selectively modifying lignin units

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Summary

Introduction

Woody biomass (or lignocellulose) constitutes the most abundant organic biomass on the earth’s surface. Biodegradation of this lignocellulosic biomass has a significant role in maintaining the earth’s geocarbon cycles. Brown rot fungi are major degraders of forest biomass around the world and are especially a huge threat to the wooden constructions or woody products in the northern hemisphere (Goodell et al 2003). Wood decaying fungi and their significant degradative mechanism were being seriously implemented in various industrial and environmental processes, such as bioremediation, bioconversion, bio-pulping, bio-bleaching, biosorption, deinking of paper, pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, and several other applications (Goodell et al 2003; Arantes and Goodell 2014)

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