Microbial diversity in support of anaerobic biomass valorization

Microbial diversity provides an immense reservoir of functions and supports key steps in maintaining ecosystem balance through matter decomposition processes and nutrient recycling. The use of microorganisms for biomolecule production is now common, but often involves single-strain cultures. In this review, we highlight the significance of using ecosystem-derived microbial diversity for biotechnological researches. In the context of organic matter mineralization, diversity of microorganisms is essential and enhances the degradation processes. We focus on anaerobic production of biomolecules of interest from discarded biomass, which is an important issue in the context of organic waste valorization and processing. Organic waste represents an important and renewable raw material but remains underused. It is commonly accepted that anaerobic mineralization of organic waste allows the production of diverse interesting molecules within several fields of application. We provide evidence that complex and diversified microbial communities isolated from ecosystems, i.e. microbial consortia, offer considerable advantages in degrading complex organic waste, to yield biomolecules of interest. We defend our opinion that this approach is more efficient and offers enhanced potential compared to the approaches that use single strain cultures.