Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2011 Jun;22(3):394-400. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2010.10.009. Epub 2010 Nov 9.
The microbial degradation of lignin has been well studied in white-rot and brown-rot fungi, but is much less well studied in bacteria. Recent published work suggests that a range of soil bacteria, often aromatic-degrading bacteria, are able to break down lignin. The enzymology of bacterial lignin breakdown is currently not well understood, but extracellular peroxidase and laccase enzymes appear to be involved. There are also reports of aromatic-degrading bacteria isolated from termite guts, though there are conflicting reports on the ability of termite gut micro-organisms to break down lignin. If biocatalytic routes for lignin breakdown could be developed, then lignin represents a potentially rich source of renewable aromatic chemicals.
木质素的微生物降解在白腐菌和褐腐菌中得到了很好的研究，但在细菌中研究得较少。最近发表的研究工作表明，许多土壤细菌，通常是芳香族降解细菌，能够分解木质素。细菌木质素分解的酶学目前还不是很清楚，但细胞外过氧化物酶和漆酶似乎参与其中。也有报道称从白蚁肠道中分离出芳香族降解细菌，但关于白蚁肠道微生物分解木质素的能力存在相互矛盾的报告。如果能够开发出木质素生物催化分解的途径，那么木质素将成为可再生芳香族化学品的潜在丰富来源。
