Inference of phenotype-defining functional modules of protein families for microbial plant biomass degraders.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Efficient industrial processes for converting plant lignocellulosic materials into biofuels are a key to global efforts to come up with alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. Novel cellulolytic enzymes have been discovered in microbial genomes and metagenomes of microbial communities. However, the identification of relevant genes without known homologs, and the elucidation of the lignocellulolytic pathways and protein complexes for different microorganisms remain challenging.

Results

We describe a new computational method for the targeted discovery of functional modules of plant biomass-degrading protein families, based on their co-occurrence patterns across genomes and metagenome datasets, and the strength of association of these modules with the genomes of

SUBMITTER: Konietzny SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4189754 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature