Intracellular pathways for lignin catabolism in white-rot fungi
Carlos del Cerro, Erika Erickson, Tao Dong, Allison R. Wong, Elizabeth Eder, Samuel Purvine, Hugh Mitchell, Karl Weitz, Lye Meng Markillie, Meagan Burnet, David Hoyt, Rosalie Chu, Jan‐Fang Cheng, Kelsey J. Ramirez, Rui Katahira, Wei Xiong, Michael E. Himmel, Venkataramanan Subramanian, Jeffrey Linger, Davinia Salvachúa
Abstract
Significance White-rot fungi play an essential role in global carbon cycling because of their extraordinary ability to extracellularly deconstruct lignin, a recalcitrant plant biopolymer. Despite this, the intracellular metabolism of lignin-deconstruction products by this fungal group has been largely overlooked, potentially due to a lack of genetic tools and challenging growth-tracking protocols, which complicate studies that are considered routine in other organisms. Here, we definitively demonstrate that white-rot fungi are also able to modify and utilize aromatic lignin-deconstruction products as a carbon source. Our study elucidates a critical process occurring in soil ecosystems, encouraging further study of lignin’s catabolic fate in diverse environmental conditions toward an improved understanding of the role of these fungi in facilitating carbon sequestration in nature.