自然界降解纤维素的微生物及其降解策略呈现多样性的特点。除了获得纯培养的纤维素降解微生物外,自然环境中还有大量不可培养的微生物,这些微生物蕴藏着丰富的纤维素酶和基因资源。环境基因组学和蛋白组学的出现为挖掘这些未知资源提供了必要的技术手段,并且已经取得了一定的成果。以下综述了相关的研究进展,并从群落系统微生物学角度,对天然生境中纤维素的降解机制的研究进行了展望。
There is a great diversity for cellulolytic microbes in nature and the strategies they use to digest cellulose.In addition to the cultured cellulolytic microbes,there are still a great number of microbes being not readily culturable in natural environments,which may represent great potential for identifying novel cellulases and their encoding genes.The rise of metagenomics and metaproteomics provides essential technologic tools to dig up these resources and significant progress has been made so far.This review gives an insight into some relative results that have arisen from the meta-genomic or proteomic analysis of definitive uncultured microbe communities. Their potential role in elucidating the process and mechanisms of cellulose degradation in natural environment from the point of "community system microbiology" is also discussed.