Biomass

Biography

Biography: Craig B. Faulds

Abstract

Filamentous fungi are an invaluable source of enzymes able to deconstruct the complex lignocellulosic plant cell wall. The wealth of genomic data obtained recently from wood-rotting fungi has revealed the diversity of lignocellulolytic enzymes they produce. The CIRM-CF collection hosted in our lab (https://www6.inra.fr/cirm/Champignons-Filamenteux) is dedicated to such fungi originating from specific temperate and tropical biotopes. This provides a unique tool to explore fungal functional biodiversity with applications in various fields of biotechnology, including the pretreatment and saccharification of biomass as well as the biotransformation of biomass-derived compounds into platform chemicals for food and non-food application. Beyond the comparison of genome portfolios, the analysis of transcriptome profiles in vivo allows identification of the sets of genes encoding the enzyme machineries expressed according to the organisms’ strategy for plant cell wall degradation/modification. These analyses reveal which enzymes are produced during the different stages of plant cell wall deconstruction, whether it will be drastic disruption or more subtle modifications, and under challenging environmental conditions, such as marine environments. Under the auspices of a Joint Genome Initiative-sponsored project from the US Department of Energy, we are currently establishing the genomic, transcriptomic and secretomic data from 40 Polyporales species grown on complex (Pine chips, Aspen chips, Wheat Straw) and simple (cellulose, xylan, maltose) substrates. This compliments previous studies on selected fungi and the ligninolytic enzymes they produce and allows us to identify novel enzymes and try to elucidate the different mechanisms in nature involved in biomass deconstruction.