Phytopathogenic Fungi: Useful Tools to Degrade Plant Biomass for Bioethanol Production

Abstract

Phytopathogenic fungi are able to produce enzymes for cell wall degradation when they attack the hosts and there is a close relationship between the capacity of enzymatic secretion and the virulence of these microorganisms. These enzymes are promising for biotechnological purposes and plant biomasses play an important role for induction of their production by fungal species. Biomass is an economic alternative to reduce pollution and to produce renewable fuels. The fungal enzymes are mainly applied for the hydrolysis step of bioethanol production process, which is environmentally friend. Many phytopathogen fungi are considered promising for enzymes production such as Chrysoporthe cubensis, Ceratocystis fimbriata and Fusarium verticillioides.

Computational Tools and Phytopathogenic Fungi Secretome: Unraveling the Protein Arsenal

“…Enzyme classes covered by CAZy include Glycosyl Hydrolase (GH), Carbohydrate Esterase (CE), Polysaccharide Lyase (PL), Glycosyltransferases (GT), and enzymes with Auxiliary Activity (AA) [9]. It is known that CAZYmes can be applied in various industrial processes, and many studies are showing the secretion of these enzymes of commercial interest by phytopatogenic fungi [7]. The xylanases, important CAZymes secreted by several pathogen fungus can be used for various biotechnology process such as clarification of juices, pulp bleaching, bioconversion of lignocellulose into fermentable sugars and preparation of animal food and have been reported in many papers [9,[13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…Proteomics, in combination with bioinformatics prediction of the secretome and enzymatic activity analyses, constitutes a powerful tool for providing information about pathogenicity, virulence factors and biotechnological potential of the exoproteome of phytopathogenic fungi [7][8][9]. Thus, there are many computational tools that may be employed to predict proteins of interest, their subcellular location, and conditions of expression.…”

“…Furthermore, by using integrated proteomics with computational tools, it is possible to predict the subcellular location, when proteins are expressed, and the different proteins and enzymes produced by fungi. It is also possible to discover the implications for fungi development and changes in environmental responses [7][8][9]. Therefore, the enzymes secreted by phytopathogenic fungi deserve attention due to their potential for industrial application, which encourages research related to genetics and the secretion mechanisms of these enzymes [5].…”