An artificial selection procedure enriches for known and suspected chitin degraders from the prokaryotic rare biosphere of multiple marine biotopes
This study unveils distinct bacterial consortia possessing moderate to high efficiency at degrading chitin. They were composed of a mix of known chitin degraders, known chitin utilizers and many taxa poorly or not yet known for their role(s) in chitin degradation such as Aureivirga, Psychromonas, Motilimonas, Reichenbachiella, or Halodesulfovibrio. The latter taxa are potential key players in marine chitin degradation whose study could lead to the discovery of novel enzyme variants able to degrade chitin and its derivatives.
Authors
- Laurence Meunier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-0795)
- Rodrigo Costa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5932-4101)
- Jorge M.S. Gonçalves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7704-8190)
- David Cannella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0850-1278)
- Tina Keller‐Costa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3702-9192)
- Isabelle George (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1616-5232)
- Etienne Dechamps (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1116-6957)
- Matilde Marques (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9443-0893)
Institutions
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (PT)
- University of Algarve (PT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Microbiology
- Published
- 2025-11-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-025-04218-7
- Primary Topic
- Studies on Chitinases and Chitosanases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- Centro de Ciências do Mar
- MIT Portugal
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
- Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture