The Cellulosome: A Fiber-Degrading Strategist of the Rumen Microbiome

Abstract

AbstractMicrobes in the rumen of herbivores are responsible for effective plant biomass decomposition and digestion. Recent efforts to transform cellulosic biomass into biofuels have heightened interest in the bacterial fibrinolytic processes used by these bacteria. In ecology, plant cell wall material is used to transmit energy between the host and parasitic organisms. Herbivores eat plant material and digest it via symbiotic stomach microbiota (protozoa, fungi, and bacteria). Much anaerobic lignocellulose and hemicellulose-digesting bacteria populate the rumen. Cellulosome is a plant cell wall destroying bacteria’s strategic arsenal. Raphael Lamed identified this complex protein in 1983 in an extremophile Clostridium thermocellum. The cellulosome complex and its actions were also being studied as “Swiss knife” shape and protein complex, the cellulosome protein complex (carbohydrate-binding modules (CBM), cohesin, dockerin, enzymes, and scaffoldings. Scientists discovered these compounds in rumen microbes. A constant study has helped us learn more about rumen bacteria and how their cellulosomes break down plant cell walls. The rumen community depends on cellulolytic Ruminococcus spp. Cohesin-dockerin molecules combine to form cellulosome complexes. Designer cellulosomes are chimeric-tailored cellulosomes that function in a cell-free system. They improve the hydrolysis of cellulosic substrates to create value-added products. For this purpose, recombinant constructions and artificial self-assembling chimeric proteins are produced. The capacity of rumen microbes to digest refractory cellulose is of great industrial importance, and metagenomics research is helping to understand and determine the quantities and kinds of cellulolytic bacteria found in the bovine rumen complex ecosystem. This chapter explains the cellulosomal machinery’s extensive function in lignocellulose-degrading bacteria.KeywordsCellulosomesCellulosic substratesRumen microbesLignocellulose-degrading bacteria