Global Distribution of Carbohydrate Utilization Potential in the Prokaryotic Tree of Life.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms dominate all ecosystems on Earth and play a key role in the turnover of organic matter. By producing enzymes, they degrade complex carbohydrates, facilitating the recycling of nutrients and controlling the carbon cycle. Despite their importance, our knowledge regarding microbial carbohydrate utilization has been limited to genome-sequenced taxa and thus heavily biased to specific groups and environments. Here, we used the Genomes from Earth's Microbiomes (GEM) catalog to describe the carbohydrate utilization potential in >7000 bacterial and archaeal taxa originating from a range of terrestrial, marine and host-associated habitats. We show that the production of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) is phylogenetically conserved and varies significantly among microbial phyla.

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Mondejar R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9765126 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature