Two degradation strategies for overcoming the recalcitrance of natural lignocellulosic xylan by polysaccharides-binding GH10 and GH11 xylanases of filamentous fungi

Harnessing Xylanase Potential in Thermothelomyces fergusii: Insights from Computational and Functional Analysis

Xylanases are crucial for the breakdown of hemicellulose, enabling the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars for biofuels and other industrial applications. For the first time, we investigated the biochemical and genetic characteristics of 22 xylanase genes from Thermothelomyces fergusii within glycoside hydrolase (GH) families GH10, GH11, and GH43. Xylanase genes structural diversity clustered the phylogenetic tree into GH10, GH11, GH43-I, and GH43-II groups. Structural analysis revealed that all TfGH10 and TfGH11 genes contained conserved GH domains, with CBM1 present in TfGH10-5 and TfGH11-4. Secondary domains, including CBM35, CBM42, and CBM91, were found in the GH43 gene family. The presence of key glutamic (Glu) and aspartic (Asp) residues in active sites is essential for substrate binding and catalysis. RT-qPCR analysis revealed substrate-dependent gene expression, with peak upregulation on day three in beechwood xylan (BWX) cultures and day two in corncob xylan (CCX) and rice straw (RS) cultures. Consistent with these findings, enzymatic assays demonstrated the highest xylanase activity in BWX-induced cultures, followed by RS and CCX, underscoring the differential regulation of these enzymes in response to distinct hemicellulosic substrates. These findings provide valuable insights into the structural, functional, and regulatory mechanisms of T. fergusii xylanases, facilitating their industrial application.

Ancestral sequence reconstruction of a robust β-1,4-xylanase and efficient expression in Bacillus subtilis

Xylanases are a class of glycoside hydrolases commonly used in the food, papermaking, and textile industries. However, most xylanases are rapidly inactivated under harsh industrial conditions. Here, a unique and robust GH11 xylanase, AncXyn18, was designed using an ancestral sequence reconstruction strategy, sequence analysis, structure prediction, and experimental verification. It displayed desirable robustness with high alkali resistance and thermostability, retaining >50 % of the initial activity after incubation at pH 10.0 or 70 °C for 10 h. Furthermore, the engineered strain Bs-AncXyn18-Du12 based on the dual promoter PsigW-P43 increased the enzyme activity of AncXyn18 7.5-fold, reaching 58.2 U/mL. This work offers a theoretical basis for the improvement of xylanases, which will benefit the enzymatic bioconversion of xylan-containing agricultural waste into high-value oligosaccharide products and promote green industrial development.

Evolutionary history and activity towards oligosaccharides and polysaccharides of GH3 glycosidases from an Antarctic marine bacterium

Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) are pivotal in the hydrolysis of the glycosidic bonds of sugars, which are the main carbon and energy sources. The genome of Marinomonas sp. ef1, an Antarctic bacterium, contains three GHs belonging to family 3. These enzymes have distinct architectures and low sequence identity, suggesting that they originated from separate horizontal gene transfer events. M-GH3_A and M-GH3_B, were found to differ in cold adaptation and substrate specificity. M-GH3_A is a bona fide cold-active enzyme since it retains 20 % activity at 10 °C and exhibits poor long-term thermal stability. On the other hand, M-GH3_B shows mesophilic traits with very low activity at 10 °C (< 5 %) and higher long-term thermal stability. Substrate specificity assays highlight that M-GH3_A is a promiscuous β-glucosidase mainly active on cellobiose and cellotetraose, whereas M-GH3_B is a β-xylosidase active on xylan and arabinoxylan. Structural analysis suggests that such functional differences are due to their differently shaped active sites. The active site of M-GH3_A is wider but has a narrower entrance compared to that of M-GH3_B. Genome-based prediction of metabolic pathways suggests that Marinomonas sp. ef1 can use monosaccharides derived from the GH3-catalyzed hydrolysis of oligosaccharides either as a carbon source or for producing osmolytes.

Tracking investigation of archaeal composition and methanogenesis function from parental to offspring pigs

Archaea play a crucial role in microbial systems, including driving biochemical reactions and affecting host health by producing methane through hydrogen. The study of swine gut archaea has a positive significance in reducing methane emissions and improving feed utilization efficiency. However, the development and functional changes of archaea in the pig intestines have been overlooked for a long time. In this study, 54 fecal samples were collected from 36 parental pigs (18 boars and 18 pregnant/lactating sows), and 108 fecal samples from 18 offspring pigs during lactation, nursery, growing, and finishing stages were tracked and collected for metagenomic sequencing. We obtained 14 archaeal non-redundant metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). These archaea were classified as Methanobacteriota and Thermoplasmatota at the phylum level, and Methanobrevibacter, Methanosphaera, MX-02, and UBA71 at the genus level, involving hydrogenotrophic, methylotrophic, and acetoclastic pathways. The hydrogenotrophic pathway dominated the methanogenesis function, and the vast majority of archaea participated in it. Dietary changes profoundly affected the archaeal composition and methanogenesis function in pigs. The abundance of hydrogen-producing bacteria in parental pigs fed high-fiber diets was higher than that in offspring pigs fed low-fiber diets. The methanogenesis function was positively correlated with fiber decomposition functions and negatively correlated with the starch decomposition function. Increased abundance of sulfate reductase and fumarate reductase, as well as decreased acetate/propionate ratio, indicated that the upregulation of alternative hydrogen uptake pathways competing with methanogens may be the reason for the reduced methanogenesis function. These findings contribute to providing information and direction in the pig industry for the development of strategies to reduce methane emissions, improve feed efficiency, and maintain intestinal health.

Investigating the effect of substrate binding on the catalytic activity of xylanase

XynAF1 from Aspergillus fumigatus Z5 is an efficient thermophilic xylanase belonging to glycoside hydrolase family 10 (GH10). The non-catalytic amino acids N179 and R246 in its catalytic center formed one and three intermolecular H-bonds with the substrate in the aglycone region, respectively. Here we purified XynAF1-N179S and XynAF1-R246K, and obtained the protein-product complex structures by X-ray diffraction. The snapshots indicated that mutations at N179 and R246 had decreased the substrate-binding ability in the aglycone region. XynAF1-N179S, XynAF1-R246K, and XynAF1-N179S-R246K lost one, three, and four H-bonds with the substrate in comparison with the wild-type XynAF1, respectively, but this had little influence on the protein structure. As expected, N179S, R246K, and N179S-R246K led to a gradual decrease of substrate affinity of XynAF1. Interestingly, the enzyme assay showed that N179S increased catalytic efficiency, while both R246K and N179S-R246K had decreased catalytic efficiency. KEY POINTS: • The non-catalytic amino acids of XynAF1 could form H-bonds with the substrate. • The protein-product complex structures were obtained by X-ray diffraction. • The enzyme-substrate-binding capacity could affect enzyme catalytic efficiency.

A thermostable and CBM2-linked GH10 xylanase from Thermobifida fusca for paper bleaching

Xylanases have the potential to be used as bio-deinking and bio-bleaching materials and their application will decrease the consumption of the chlorine-based chemicals currently used for this purpose. However, xylanases with specific properties could act effectively, such as having significant thermostability and alkali resistance, etc. In this study, we found that TfXyl10A, a xylanase from Thermobifida fusca, was greatly induced to transcript by microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) substrate. Biochemical characterization showed that TfXyl10A is optimally effective at temperature of 80 °C and pH of 9.0. After removing the carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) and linker regions, the optimum temperature of TfXyl10A-CD was reduced by 10°C (to 70°C), at which the enzyme’s temperature tolerance was also weakened. While truncating only the CBM domain (TfXyl10AdC) had no significant effect on its thermostability. Importantly, polysaccharide-binding experiment showed that the auxiliary domain CBM2 could specifically bind to cellulose substrates, which endowed xylanase TfXyl10A with the ability to degrade xylan surrounding cellulose. These results indicated that TfXyl10A might be an excellent candidate in bio-bleaching processes of paper industry. In addition, the features of active-site architecture of TfXyl10A in GH10 family were further analyzed. By mutating each residue at the -2 and -1 subsites to alanine, the binding force and enzyme activity of mutants were observably decreased. Interestingly, the mutant E51A, locating at the distal -3 subsite, exhibited 90% increase in relative activity compared with wild-type (WT) enzyme TfXyl10A-CD (the catalytic domain of TfXyl110A). This study explored the function of a GH10 xylanase containing a CBM2 domain and the contribution of amino acids in active-site architecture to catalytic activity. The results obtained provide guidance for the rational design of xylanases for industrial applications under high heat and alkali-based operating conditions, such as paper bleaching.

Exploring the multi-level regulation of lignocellulases in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742 from an omics perspective

BACKGROUND

Filamentous fungi are highly efficient at deconstructing plant biomass by secreting a variety of enzymes, but the complex enzymatic regulation underlying this process is not conserved and remains unclear.

RESULTS

In this study, cellulases and xylanases could specifically respond to Avicel- and xylan-induction, respectively, in lignocellulose-degrading strain Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742, however, the differentially regulated cellulases and xylanases were both under the absolute control of the same TgXyr1-mediated pathway. Further analysis showed that Avicel could specifically induce cellulase expression, which supported the existence of an unknown specific regulator of cellulases in strain NJAU4742. The xylanase secretion is very complex, GH10 endoxylanases could only be induced by Avicel, while, other major xylanases were significantly induced by both Avicel and xylan. For GH10 xylanases, an unknown specific regulator was also deduced to exist. Meanwhile, the post-transcriptional inhibition was subsequently suggested to stop the Avicel-induced xylanases secretion, which explained the specifically high xylanase activities when induced by xylan in strain NJAU4742. Additionally, an economical strategy used by strain NJAU4742 was proposed to sense the environmental lignocellulose under the carbon starvation condition, that only slightly activating 4 lignocellulose-degrading genes before largely secreting all 33 TgXyr1-controlled lignocellulases if confirming the existence of lignocellulose components.

CONCLUSIONS

This study, aiming to explore the unknown mechanisms of plant biomass-degrading enzymes regulation through the combined omics analysis, will open directions for in-depth understanding the complex carbon utilization in filamentous fungi.

Functional Specificity of Three α-Arabinofuranosidases from Different Glycoside Hydrolase Families in Aspergillus niger An76

α-l-Arabinofuranosidase (Abf), a debranching enzyme that can remove arabinose substituents from arabinoxylan, promotes the hydrolysis of hemicellulose in plant biomass. However, the functional specificity of Abfs from different glycoside hydrolase (GH) families on the digestion of arabinoxylan and their synergistic interaction with xylanase have not been systematically studied. In this work, we characterized three Abfs (AxhA, AbfB, and AbfC) from GH62, GH54, and GH51 families in Aspergillus niger An76. Quantitative transcriptional analysis showed that expression of the axhA gene was upregulated as a result of induction by xylose substrates, whereas expression of the abfB gene was mainly induced by arabinose. Recombinant AxhA, AbfB, and AbfC exhibited different hydrolytic performances. AxhA showed the highest catalytic activity toward wheat arabinoxylan (WAX) and tended to hydrolyze monosubstituted arabinofuranose units, whereas AbfB had higher catalytic activity on AN and debranched arabinan (DAN), having the ability to cope with mono- and disubstituted arabinofuranose units. Furthermore, AbfC had greater arabinofuranosidase activity on p-nitrophenyl-α-l-arabinofuranoside (pNP-AraF) than on other substrates. Moreover, three Abfs displayed obvious synergistic action with GH11 xylanase XynB against WAX and barley husk residues. The elucidation of the degradation mechanisms of Abfs will lay a theoretical foundation for the efficient industrialized transformation of arabinoxylans.

A Fungal Versatile GH10 Endoxylanase and Its Glycosynthase Variant: Synthesis of Xylooligosaccharides and Glycosides of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds

The study of endoxylanases as catalysts to valorize hemicellulosic residues and to obtain glycosides with improved properties is a topic of great industrial interest. In this work, a GH10 β-1,4-endoxylanase (XynSOS), from the ascomycetous fungus Talaromyces amestolkiae, has been heterologously produced in Pichia pastoris, purified, and characterized. rXynSOS is a highly glycosylated monomeric enzyme of 53 kDa that contains a functional CBM1 domain and shows its optimal activity on azurine cross-linked (AZCL)-beechwood xylan at 70 °C and pH 5. Substrate specificity and kinetic studies confirmed its versatility and high affinity for beechwood xylan and wheat arabinoxylan. Moreover, rXynSOS was capable of transglycosylating phenolic compounds, although with low efficiencies. For expanding its synthetic capacity, a glycosynthase variant of rXynSOS was developed by directed mutagenesis, replacing its nucleophile catalytic residue E236 by a glycine (rXynSOS-E236G). This novel glycosynthase was able to synthesize β-1,4-xylooligosaccharides (XOS) of different lengths (four, six, eight, and ten xylose units), which are known to be emerging prebiotics. rXynSOS-E236G was also much more active than the native enzyme in the glycosylation of a broad range of phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties. The interesting capabilities of rXynSOS and its glycosynthase variant make them promising tools for biotechnological applications.

Pretreatment Affects Profits From Xylanase During Enzymatic Saccharification of Corn Stover Through Changing the Interaction Between Lignin and Xylanase Protein

Effective pretreatment is vital to improve the biomass conversion efficiency, which often requires the addition of xylanase as an accessory enzyme to enhance enzymatic saccharification of corn stover. In this study, we investigated the effect of two sophisticated pretreatment methods including ammonium sulfite (AS) and steam explosion (SE) on the xylanase profits involved in enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover. We further explored the interactions between lignin and xylanase Xyn10A protein. Our results showed that the conversion rates of glucan and xylan in corn stover by AS pretreatment were higher by Xyn10A supplementation than that by SE pretreatment. Compared with the lignin from SE pretreated corn stover, the lignin from AS pretreated corn stover had a lower Xyn10A initial adsorption velocity (13.56 vs. 10.89 mg g⁻¹ min⁻¹) and adsorption capacity (49.46 vs. 27.42 mg g⁻¹ of lignin) and weakened binding strength (310.6 vs. 215.9 L g⁻¹). Our study demonstrated the low absolute zeta potential and strong hydrophilicity of the lignin may partly account for relative weak interaction between xylanase protein and lignin from AS pretreated corn stover. In conclusion, our results suggested that AS pretreatment weakened the inhibition of lignin to enzyme, promoted the enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover, and decreased the cost of enzyme in bioconversion.

Significantly improving the thermostability of a hyperthermophilic GH10 family xylanase XynAF1 by semi-rational design

Xylanases have a broad range of applications in industrial biotechnologies, which require the enzymes to resist the high-temperature environments. The majority of xylanases have maximum activity at moderate temperatures, which limited their potential applications in industries. In this study, a thermophilic GH10 family xylanase XynAF1 from the high-temperature composting strain Aspergillus fumigatus Z5 was characterized and engineered to further improve its thermostability. XynAF1 has the optimal reaction temperature of 90 °C. The crystal structure of XynAF1 was obtained by X-ray diffraction after heterologous expression, purification, and crystallization. The high-resolution X-ray crystallographic structure of the protein-product complex was obtained by soaking the apo-state crystal with xylotetraose. Structure analysis indicated that XynAF1 has a rigid skeleton, which helps to maintain the hyperthermophilic characteristic. The homologous structure analysis and the catalytic center mutant construction of XynAF1 indicated the conserved catalytic center contributed to the high optimum catalytic temperature. The amino acids in the surface of xylanase XynAF1 which might influence the enzyme thermostability were identified by the structure analysis. Combining the rational design with the saturation mutation at the high B-value regions, the integrative mutant XynAF1-AC with a 6-fold increase of thermostability was finally obtained. This study efficiently improved the thermostability of a GH10 family xylanase by semi-rational design, which provided a new biocatalyst for high-temperature biotechnological applications. KEY POINTS: • Obtained the crystal structure of GH10 family hyperthermophilic xylanase XynAF1. • Shed light on the understanding of the GH10 family xylanase thermophilic mechanism. • Constructed a 6-fold increased thermostability recombinant xylanase.

Synergistic mechanism of GH11 xylanases with different action modes from Aspergillus niger An76

BACKGROUND

Xylan is the most abundant hemicellulose polysaccharide in nature, which can be converted into high value-added products. However, its recalcitrance to breakdown requires the synergistic action of multiple enzymes. Aspergillus niger, possessing numerous xylan degrading isozyme-encoding genes, are highly effective xylan degraders in xylan-rich habitats. Therefore, it is necessary to explore gene transcription, the mode of action and cooperation mechanism of different xylanase isozymes to further understand the efficient xylan-degradation by A. niger.

RESULTS

Aspergillus niger An76 encoded a comprehensive set of xylan-degrading enzymes, including five endo-xylanases (one GH10 and four GH11). Quantitative transcriptional analysis showed that three xylanase genes (xynA, xynB and xynC) were up-regulated by xylan substrates, and the order and amount of enzyme secretion differed. Specifically, GH11 xylanases XynA and XynB were initially secreted successively, followed by GH10 xylanase XynC. Biochemical analyses displayed that three GH11 xylanases (XynA, XynB and XynD) showed differences in catalytic performance and product profiles, possibly because of intricate hydrogen bonding between substrates and functional residues in the active site architectures impacted their binding capacity. Among these, XynB had the best performance in the degradation of xylan and XynE had no catalytic activity. Furthermore, XynA and XynB showed synergistic effects during xylan degradation.

CONCLUSIONS

The sequential secretion and different action modes of GH11 xylanases were essential for the efficient xylan degradation by A. niger An76. The elucidation of the degradation mechanisms of these xylanase isozymes further improved our understanding of GH-encoding genes amplification in filamentous fungi and may guide the design of the optimal enzyme cocktails in industrial applications.

Identification and characterization of a novel bacterial carbohydrate esterase from the bacterium Pantoea ananatis Sd-1 with potential for degradation of lignocellulose and pesticides

OBJECTIVE

Identification and characterization of a novel bacterial carbohydrate esterase (PaCes7) with application potential for lignocellulose and pesticide degradation.

RESULTS

PaCes7 was identified from the lignocellulolytic bacterium, Pantoea ananatis Sd-1 as a new carbohydrate esterase. Recombinant PaCes7 heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli showed a clear preference for esters with short-chain fatty acids and exhibited maximum activity towards α-naphthol acetate at 37 °C and pH 7.5. Purified PaCes7 exhibited its catalytic activity under mesophilic conditions and retained more than 40% activity below 30 °C. It displayed a relatively wide pH stability from pH 6-11. Furthermore, the enzyme was strongly resistant to Mg²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Co²⁺ and activated by K⁺ and Ca²⁺. Both P. ananatis Sd-1 and PaCes7 could degrade the pesticide carbaryl. Additionally, PaCes7 was shown to work in combination with cellulase and/or xylanase in rice straw degradation.

CONCLUSIONS

The data suggest that PaCes7 possesses promising biotechnological potential.

Proteomic analysis reflects an environmental alkalinization-coupled pH-dependent mechanism of regulating lignocellulases in Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742

BACKGROUND

Filamentous fungi have the ability to efficiently decompose plant biomass, and thus are widely used in the biofuel and bioprocess industries. In process, ambient pH has been reported to strongly affect the performance of the applied functional filamentous fungi. In this study, Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742 was investigated under the fermentation of rice straw at different initial pH values for a detailed study.

RESULTS

The results showed that NJAU4742 strain could tolerate ambient pH values ranging from 3.0 to 9.0, but had significantly higher growth speed and extracellular enzyme activities under acidic conditions. At low ambient pH (< 4), NJAU4742 strain achieved rapid degradation of rice straw by elevating the ambient pH to an optimal range through environmental alkalinization. Further proteomic analysis identified a total of 1139 intracellular and extracellular proteins during the solid-state fermentation processes, including the quantified 190 carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) responsible for rice straw degradation, such as 19 cellulases, 47 hemicellulases and 11 chitinases. Meanwhile, the analysis results clearly showed that the secreted lignocellulases had a synergistic trend in distribution according to the ambient pH, and thus led to a pH-dependent classification of lignocellulases in T. guizhouense NJAU4742.

CONCLUSIONS

Most functional lignocellulases were found to be differently regulated by the ambient pH in T. guizhouense NJAU4742, which had the ability of speeding up biomass degradation by elevating the ambient pH through environmental alkalinization. These findings contribute to the theoretical basis for the biodegradation of plant biomass by filamentous fungi in the biofuel and bioprocess industries.

Cooperation of hydrolysis modes among xylanases reveals the mechanism of hemicellulose hydrolysis by Penicillium chrysogenum P33

Background

Xylanases randomly cleave the internal β-1,4-glycosidic bonds in the xylan backbone and are grouped into different families in the carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZy) database. Although multiple xylanases are detected in single strains of many filamentous fungi, no study has been reported on the composition, synergistic effect, and mode of action in a complete set of xylanases secreted by the same microorganism.

Results

All three xylanases secreted by Penicillium chrysogenum P33 were expressed and characterized. The enzymes Xyl1 and Xyl3 belong to the GH10 family and Xyl3 contains a CBM1 domain at its C-terminal, whereas Xyl2 belongs to the GH11 family. The optimal temperature/pH values were 35 °C/6.0, 50 °C/5.0 and 55 °C/6.0 for Xyl1, Xyl2, and Xyl3, respectively. The three xylanases exhibited synergistic effects, with the maximum synergy observed between Xyl3 and Xyl2, which are from different families. The synergy between xylanases could also improve the hydrolysis of cellulase (C), with the maximum amount of reducing sugars (5.68 mg/mL) observed using the combination of C + Xyl2 + Xyl3. Although the enzymatic activity of Xyl1 toward xylan was low, it was shown to be capable of hydrolyzing xylooligosaccharides into xylose. Xyl2 was shown to hydrolyze xylan to long-chain xylooligosaccharides, whereas Xyl3 hydrolyzed xylan to xylooligosaccharides with a lower degree of polymerization.

Conclusions

Synergistic effect exists among different xylanases, and it was higher between xylanases from different families. The cooperation of hydrolysis modes comprised the primary mechanism for the observed synergy between different xylanases. This study demonstrated, for the first time, that the hydrolysates of GH11 xylanases can be further hydrolyzed by GH10 xylanases, but not vice versa.

Synergistic effect of acetyl xylan esterase from Talaromyces leycettanus JCM12802 and xylanase from Neocallimastix patriciarum achieved by introducing carbohydrate-binding module-1

Wheat bran is an effective raw material for preparation xylooligosaccharides; however, current research mainly focuses on alkali extraction and enzymatic hydrolysis methods. Since ester bonds are destroyed during the alkali extraction process, xylanase and arabinofuranosidase are mainly used to hydrolyze xylooligosaccharides. However, alkali extraction costs are very high, and the method also causes pollution. Therefore, this study focuses on elucidating a method to efficiently and directly degrade destarched wheat bran. First, an acidic acetyl xylan esterase (AXE) containing a carbohydrate-binding module-1 (CBM1) domain was cloned from Talaromyces leycettanus JCM12802 and successfully expressed in Pichia pastoris. Characterization showed that the full-length acetyl xylan esterase AXE + CBM1 was similar toe uncovered AXE with an optimum temperature and pH of 55 °C and 6.5, respectively. Testing the acetyl xylan esterase and xylanase derived from Neocallimastix patriciarum in a starch-free wheat bran cooperative experiment revealed that AXE + CBM1 and AXE produced 29% and 16% reducing sugars respectively, compared to when only NPXYN11 was used. In addition, introduced the CBM1 domain into NPXYN11, and the results indicated that the CBM1 domain showed little effect on NPXYN11 properties. Finally, the systematically synergistic effects between acetyl xylan esterase and xylanase with/without the CBM1 domain demonstrated that the combined ratio of AXE + CBM1 coming in first and NPXYN11 + CBM1 s increased reducing sugars by almost 35% with AXE and NPXYN11. Furthermore, each component's proportion remained the same with respect to xylooligosaccharides, with the largest proportion (86%) containing of 49% xylobiose and 37% xylotriose.

Grazing-induced microbiome alterations drive soil organic carbon turnover and productivity in meadow steppe

BACKGROUND

Grazing is a major modulator of biodiversity and productivity in grasslands. However, our understanding of grazing-induced changes in below-ground communities, processes, and soil productivity is limited. Here, using a long-term enclosed grazing meadow steppe, we investigated the impacts of grazing on the soil organic carbon (SOC) turnover, the microbial community composition, resistance and activity under seasonal changes, and the microbial contributions to soil productivity.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that grazing had significant impacts on soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions in meadow steppe. The highest microbial α-diversity was observed under light grazing intensity, while the highest β-diversity was observed under moderate grazing intensity. Grazing shifted the microbial composition from fungi dominated to bacteria dominated and from slow growing to fast growing, thereby resulting in a shift from fungi-dominated food webs primarily utilizing recalcitrant SOC to bacteria-dominated food webs mainly utilizing labile SOC. Moreover, the higher fungal recalcitrant-SOC-decomposing activities and bacterial labile-SOC-decomposing activities were observed in fungi- and bacteria-dominated communities, respectively. Notably, the robustness of bacterial community and the stability of bacterial activity were associated with α-diversity, while this was not the case for the robustness of fungal community and its associated activities. Finally, we observed that microbial α-diversity rather than SOC turnover rate can predict soil productivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate the strong influence of grazing on soil microbial community, SOC turnover, and soil productivity and the important positive role of soil microbial α-diversity in steering the functions of meadow steppe ecosystems.

Effect of CBM1 and linker region on enzymatic properties of a novel thermostable dimeric GH10 xylanase (Xyn10A) from filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus Z5

Xylanase with a high thermostability will satisfy the needs of raising the temperature of hydrolysis to improve the rheology of the broth in industry of biomass conversion. In this study, a xylanase gene (xyn10A), predicted to encode a hydrolase domain of GH10, a linker region and a CBM1 domain, was cloned from a superior lignocellulose degrading strain Aspergillus fumigatus Z5 and successfully expressed in Pichia pastoris X33. Xyn10A has a specific xylanase activity of 34.4 U mg⁻¹, and is optimally active at 90 °C and pH 6.0. Xyn10A shows quite stable at pHs ranging from 3.0 to 11.0, and keeps over 40% of xylanase activity after incubation at 70 °C for 1 h. Removal of CBM1 domain has a slight negative effect on its thermostability, but the further cleavage of linker region significantly decreased its stability at high temperature. The transfer of CBM1 and linker region to another GH10 xylanase can help to increase the thermostability. In addition, hydrolase domains between the two Xyn10A proteins naturally formed a dimer structure, which became more thermostable after removing the CBM1 or/and linker region. This thermostable Xyn10A is a suitable candidate for the highly efficient fungal enzyme cocktails for biomass conversion.