School of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India.
P.K. Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India.
Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 8;9(1):16329. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52843-w.
The structural complexity of lignocellulosic biomass hinders the extraction of cellulose, and it has remained a challenge for decades in the biofuel production process. However, wood-feeding organisms like termite have developed an efficient natural lignocellulolytic system with the help of specialized gut microbial symbionts. Despite having an enormous amount of high-throughput metagenomic data, specific contributions of each individual microbe to achieve this lignocellulolytic functionality remains unclear. The metabolic cross-communication and interdependence that drives the community structure inside the gut microbiota are yet to be explored. We have contrived a species-wide metabolic interaction network of the termite gut-microbiome to have a system-level understanding of metabolic communication. Metagenomic data of Nasutitermes corniger have been analyzed to identify microbial communities in different gut segments. A comprehensive metabolic cross-feeding network of 205 microbes and 265 metabolites was developed using published experimental data. Reconstruction of inter-species influence network elucidated the role of 37 influential microbes to maintain a stable and functional microbiota. Furthermore, in order to understand the natural lignocellulose digestion inside N. corniger gut, the metabolic functionality of each influencer was assessed, which further elucidated 15 crucial hemicellulolytic microbes and their corresponding enzyme machinery.
木质纤维素生物质的结构复杂性阻碍了纤维素的提取，这在生物燃料生产过程中已经成为几十年来的一个挑战。然而，像白蚁这样以木材为食的生物，在专门的肠道微生物共生体的帮助下，已经发展出了一种高效的天然木质纤维素分解系统。尽管拥有大量高通量的宏基因组数据，但每个微生物对实现这种木质纤维素分解功能的具体贡献仍不清楚。肠道微生物群落内部驱动代谢交叉通讯和相互依存的机制仍有待探索。我们构建了一种白蚁肠道微生物组的全物种代谢相互作用网络，以从系统层面理解代谢通讯。分析了角鼻白蚁的宏基因组数据，以鉴定不同肠道段中的微生物群落。利用已发表的实验数据，我们构建了一个包含 205 种微生物和 265 种代谢物的综合代谢交叉喂养网络。重建种间影响网络阐明了 37 种有影响力的微生物在维持稳定和功能性微生物群中的作用。此外，为了理解 N. corniger 肠道内天然木质纤维素的消化，我们评估了每个影响者的代谢功能，这进一步阐明了 15 种关键的半纤维素分解微生物及其相应的酶机制。
