Microbial degradation of lignin: how a bulky recalcitrant polymer is efficiently recycled in nature and how we can take advantage of this.

ABSTRACT: Lignin is the second most abundant constituent of the cell wall of vascular plants, where it protects cellulose towards hydrolytic attack by saprophytic and pathogenic microbes. Its removal represents a key step for carbon recycling in land ecosystems, as well as a central issue for industrial utilization of plant biomass. The lignin polymer is highly recalcitrant towards chemical and biological degradation due to its molecular architecture, where different non-phenolic phenylpropanoid units form a complex three-dimensional network linked by a variety of ether and carbon-carbon bonds. Ligninolytic microbes have developed a unique strategy to handle lignin degradation based on unspecific one-electron oxidation of the benzenic rings in the different lignin substructures by extracellular haem

SUBMITTER: Ruiz-Duenas FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3815837 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature