CMIN will provide a global view of the bovine gut microbial metabolism.
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Influence network reveals several keystone species in the bovine gut microbiota.
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LDN focuses on identifying microbe-specific GH enzymes for conversion of biomass.
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Gut microbial metabolism can be extended to co-culture based biomass conversion.
Abstract
Biofuels derived from plant biomass can serve as an alternative for reducing the global energy demands. However, breakdown of plant biomass requires an energy-intensive pretreatment process. Biomass pretreatment with microbial communities can help for efficient biofuel production. A diverse microbial population residing inside the bovine gut is efficient for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass. Here, we report a community-wide metabolic interaction network (CMIN) of 223 microbial species identified from the bovine gut environment. CMIN helped to understand the metabolic interactions of cellulolytic, fermentative, and methanogenic microbial species during the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass. Several key lignocellulolytic species have been identified through the interspecies influence network. Moreover, the lignocellulose degradation network represented the sequential events of microbial biomass conversion and their GH enzyme activities. Therefore, the overall interaction study will be effective for understanding the natural biomass conversion machinery in bovine gut.
