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Systems biology-guided understanding of white-rot fungi for biotechnological applications: A review
Summary
Researchers reviewed systems biology approaches — methods that look at entire biological networks rather than single genes — applied to white-rot fungi, the only organisms capable of fully breaking down the tough lignin component of plant cell walls. The review highlights these fungi's potential for biotechnological applications including plastic and pollutant degradation, while noting that their internal cellular metabolism remains poorly understood.
Plant-derived biomass is the most abundant biogenic carbon source on Earth. Despite this, only a small clade of organisms known as white-rot fungi (WRF) can efficiently break down both the polysaccharide and lignin components of plant cell walls. This unique ability imparts a key role for WRF in global carbon cycling and highlights their potential utilization in diverse biotechnological applications. To date, research on WRF has primarily focused on their extracellular 'digestive enzymes' whereas knowledge of their intracellular metabolism remains underexplored. Systems biology is a powerful approach to elucidate biological processes in numerous organisms, including WRF. Thus, here we review systems biology methods applied to WRF to date, highlight observations related to their intracellular metabolism, and conduct comparative extracellular proteomic analyses to establish further correlations between WRF species, enzymes, and cultivation conditions. Lastly, we discuss biotechnological opportunities of WRF as well as challenges and future research directions.
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