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Ligninolysis. A very peculiar microbial process
1Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. rvicuna@genes.bio.puc.cl
Molecular Biotechnology
|June 29, 2000
Abstract:
Lignin, the most abundant renewable source of aromatic carbon on earth, consists in a highly irregular three dimensional biopolymer of oxygenated phenylpropanoid units. In natural environments, lignin is only degraded efficiently by some basidioamycetes that secrete an array of enzymes for this purpose. Recent advances in our understanding of the mechanism of lignin breakdown have revealed several features that make this process highly unique from a biochemical standpoint. This article summarizes some of them.