Microbial degradation of
hemicellulose
• Hemicellulose is any of several heteropolymers
(matrix polysaccharides), present along with
cellulose in almost all plant cell walls.
• While cellulose is crystalline, strong, and resistant to
hydrolysis, hemicellulose has a random structure
with little strength.
• It is easily hydrolyzed by acid or base as well as
hemicellulase enzymes.
• Unlike cellulose, hemicellulose consists of shorter
chains – 500–3,000 sugar units as opposed to 7,000–
15,000 glucose molecules per polymer seen in
cellulose.
• In addition, hemicellulose is a branched polymer, while
cellulose is unbranched.
• Hemicelluloses are embedded in the cell walls of
plants, sometimes in chains that form a 'ground' - they
bind with pectin to cellulose to form a network of
cross-linked fibres.
•This class of polymers is divided into two categories.
– Homoglycans: these contain only a single monosaccharide
type, but they usually are not the major hemicelluloses in
the plant. Typical homoglycans are xylan, mannan, or
galactan, which are polymers containing xylose, mannose,
or galactose units.
– Heteroglycans: These frequently abundant
polysaccharides contain more than one kind of
monosaccharide
– The heteroglycans are named on the basis of the
sugars in the polymer; thus, plants contain
• glucomannans,
• arabinoxylans,
• arabinogalactans, in their cell walls.
• The structure of such polymers are usually complex.
Some may have 50-200 sugar units made up from
the several sugars characteristic of these wall
constituents.
• the hemicelluloses are usually branched.
• The arrangement of different units in the
heteroglycan is not chaotic, even in the branched
molecules, and distinct and ordered arrangements
are typical.
• Furthermore, only a few sugars are common.
• These are:
• Pentoses (5 carbon sugars): xylose and
arabinose
• Hexoses (6 carbon sugars): mannose, glucose,
and galactose
• Decomposition
• Initial decoposition rapid
• Later decoposition slow
• Organism produce some enzymes which creates masking effect. So, it
seems these degrade the hemicellulose to a substancial level.
• Hemicellulose CO2 + cellular constituents
• Decomposition is governed by physical and chemical characteristics of the
habitat (pH, temp etc).
• It is higher in aerobic, higher temp, high inorganic nutrient.
• Also mature plant hemicellulose undergo slow decomposition
• Microorganism
• Diverse as the structure of hemilecculose is
heterogeneous.
• Both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms are
involved in degradation.
• Fungi
– Hyphomycetes
– Zygomycetes
– Pyrenomycetes
– hymenomycetes
• Bacteria
– Bacillus
– Cytophaga
– Erwinia
– Pseudomonas
– Sporocytophaga
– Xanthomonas
• Actinomycetes
– Streptomyces
• These organisms use hemicellulose as the sole
source of carbon and energy
• Fungi
– Alternaria
– Aspergillus
– Chaetomium
– Fusarium
– Glomerulla,
– Penicillium,
– Trichoderma
• Degradation of mannan
• Rapidly degraded in soil
• Bacillus and Vibrio
• A number of actinomycetes
• Fungi Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Penicilliuj,
Rhizopus, Trichoderma nad Zygorhynchus
• Degradation of galactans
• Basidiomycetes, aerobic and anaerobic
bacteria, actinomycetes
• Fungi Aspergillis, Cunninghamella,
Humicola, Penicilloujm, Rhizopus,
Trichoderma, Zygorynchus
• Rate of decomposition is less than xylan or
mannan
• Biochemistry of Hemicellulose degradation
• Large polymer has to be broken down into
smaller/simple compounds by extracellular
enzymes. These simple molecules then enters the
cells and assimilated.
• 3 types of enzymes involved:
– Endo enzymes: randonly cleave bond
– Exo enzymes: cleave either a single dimer or monomer
from one end of the polysaccharide chain
– Glycosidases: hydrolyse the oligomers or disaccharides
produced from the action of the other two enzymes and
produces simple sugars
• endoenzymes splits xylan into xylobiose
(disaccharide) and higher oligosaccharides
• These higher oligosaccharides are split by
exoenzymes and glycosidases to xylose
• Mannanases
• Either constitutive or inducible enzymes
• Different mannanases are known and one type do
not attach other types of mannan (due to variability
in building blocks)
• Galactanases
• Bond - (1 4) or - (1 3) between galactose
units.
• Need two different enzymes.
• End products galactose, galactobiose,
galactotriose
• Glycosidases
• Specific for particular substrate and are named accordingly
• e. g. :- xylosidase act on xylose oligomer xylose produced
• Mannosidase act on mannose oligomer mannose
produced
• A single organism cannot decompose too many types of
hemicellulose.
• Exception is Fusarium oxysporum growing on components of
tomato tissue that synthesize arabanase, xylanase,
galactanase, and glycosidases.
