compost metagenome Genome sequencing and assembly. compost metagenome

Plant lignocellulosic biomass is one of the important potential sources of value added products such as fermentable sugars, etc. Converting renewable, widely available yet vastly underused lignocellulosic biomass especially agro-residues to valuable chemicals, including fuel and polymer precursors, is of strategic importance for the sustainability and advancement of energy and chemicals industries. The biodegradation of cellulosic biomass through the use of microbial co-cultures or complex communities has been proposed as a highly efficient approach for biotechnological application, since it avoids the problems of feedback regulation and metabolite repression posed by isolated single strains. Robust enzymatic cocktails like Glycoside Hydrolases (GHs) from such microbial consortia to produce fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass are highly desirable in industrial-scale processes where harsh heat and extreme pH pre-treatments of the lignocellulosic raw materials impose limitations on the optimal functioning of enzymes. Moreover, thermophilic bacterial consortia could be a potential source of thermostable cellulases and hemicellulases that are of immense utility in industries and hence, are currently a major topic of interest in research.