Scientists are looking for ways to do this Efficiently and cost-effectively degrades plant materials so they can be converted into bioproducts useful for daily life, for example biofuels, detergents, nutritional supplements and even plastic. A research team concluded that leaf-cutting or pruning ants play a key role in the production of these products.
It is true that scientists have found ways to break down plants to produce various products, but polymers ligninThe main substance of the cell wall of plants incredibly hard to break down at an affordable price and without adding pollutants to the environment. These polymers remain as: waste products without further use.
It is known that A specialized microbial community of fungi, leafcutter ants, and bacteria naturally degrade plants and convert them into nutrients and other components. It is absorbed and used by environmental organisms and systems. However, identifying all the components and biochemical reactions required for the process remained a major challenge. Until now.
The authors of the report, recently published in the journal ‘Nature Chemical Biology’, have developed a method that allows them to study chemical biological science in more depth. molecular level and see exactly which key components are part of the plant decomposition process, as well as what, when and where the decomposition occurs. biochemical reactions which makes this possible.
The team discovered important metabolites And enzymes It stimulates biochemical reactions that are vital in the degradation process. They also observed this The bacteria present in the system make the process even more efficient.. The study’s authors believe this knowledge can be applied to the future development of biofuels and other bioproducts.
Underground ‘gardens’
Ants create authentic ‘underground gardens’ where they ‘grow’ fungi Degrades plant polymers and other materials. Additionally, the residues of this decomposition process are used and consumed by a wide variety of organisms in the garden, allowing them all to thrive. There is no waste
Maegan Murray, communications officer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), explains: Ants carry out this process by growing fungi on fresh leaves in special underground structures.. These structures become fungal gardens that consume the material.
Assists in spoilage by producing resident bacterial members amino acids And vitamins Supporting the overall ecosystem of the garden. “This is a perfect symbiotic system“, emphasize researchers who believe we can learn from this system to produce bioproducts.
However, the fungal community is extremely complex. despite floors, mushroom, ants And bacterium While these are active ingredients in the breakdown process of plants, “none of them are focused on a single task or located in a single location,” the study authors explain.
If we take into account the small size of the biochemical reactions occurring at the molecular level, An incredibly difficult puzzle for scientists. But the new imaging method developed by these researchers allows them to see exactly what happens throughout the entire degradation process.
Using a high-power laser, the team scanned 12-micron (a micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter) thick sections of a mushroom garden; This helped determine the location of metabolites in the samples and determine the location and abundance of fungi. vegetable polymers as well as other molecules such as cellulose, xylan and lignin.
‘Hot zones’
From there, the team focused on:hot regionsIn which plant material is broken down to observe the enzymes used to initiate biochemical reactions in a living system. Knowing the type and location of these enzymes allowed them to determine what was what. germs They were part of the process.
All these components together helped verify that: Fungi are the main decomposers of plant material In the system. Additionally, the team identified: bacteria transform plant polymers It is digested into metabolites previously used as vitamins and amino acids in the system. These vitamins and amino acids benefit the entire ecosystem by accelerating fungal growth and plant decay.
“These results can be taken into a laboratory and used to create biofuels and bioproducts that are important in our daily lives,” emphasizes Kristin Burnum-Johnson, leader of the Functional and Systems Biology science group at PNNL.
The team plans to use their findings for future research, with specific plans to study how fungal communities respond to disturbances and protect themselves. “We now understand how these natural systems degrade plant material very well,” says Burnum-Johnson.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01536-7
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