Evolution of High Cellulolytic Activity in Symbiotic Streptomyces through Selection of Expanded Gene Content and Coordinated Gene Expression.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of cellulose degradation was a defining event in the history of life. Without efficient decomposition and recycling, dead plant biomass would quickly accumulate and become inaccessible to terrestrial food webs and the global carbon cycle. On land, the primary drivers of plant biomass deconstruction are fungi and bacteria in the soil or associated with herbivorous eukaryotes. While the ecological importance of plant-decomposing microbes is well established, little is known about the distribution or evolution of cellulolytic activity in any bacterial genus. Here we show that in Streptomyces, a genus of Actinobacteria abundant in soil and symbiotic niches, the ability to rapidly degrade cellulose is largely restricted to two clades of host-associated strains and is not a conserv

SUBMITTER: Book AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4898821 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature