Publications by authors named "Casey A Hooker"

Anaerobic fungi are powerful platforms for biotechnology that remain unexploited due to a lack of genetic tools. These gut fungi encode the largest number of lignocellulolytic carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) in the fungal kingdom, making them attractive for applications in renewable energy and sustainability. However, efforts to genetically modify anaerobic fungi have remained limited due to inefficient methods for DNA uptake and a lack of characterized genetic parts.

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Article Synopsis
  • Anaerobic gut fungi, specifically Neocallimastigomycetes, coexist with bacteria in the digestive systems of large herbivores and may impact bacterial growth due to their rich genetic makeup.
  • In a study, researchers found that when they co-cultivated a particular strain of rumen bacteria (UWB7) with these fungi, both organisms showed significant changes in their gene expression, indicating a close interaction.
  • The findings suggest that while anaerobic fungi are outnumbered, they can still thrive and potentially produce unique antimicrobial compounds in response to the presence of bacteria, highlighting their role as a source for novel antibiotics.
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Development of the bioeconomy is driven by our ability to access the energy-rich carbon trapped in recalcitrant plant materials. Current strategies to release this carbon rely on expensive enzyme cocktails and physicochemical pretreatment, producing inhibitory compounds that hinder subsequent microbial bioproduction. Anaerobic fungi are an appealing solution as they hydrolyze crude, untreated biomass at ambient conditions into sugars that can be converted into value-added products by partner organisms.

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species are important denizens of the human gut microbiome that ferment complex polysaccharides to butyrate as a terminal fermentation product, which influences human physiology and serves as an energy source for colonocytes. Previous comparative genomics analyses of the genus have examined polysaccharide degradation genes. Here, we characterize the core and pangenomes of the genus with respect to central carbon and energy metabolism, as well as biosynthesis of amino acids and B vitamins using orthology-based methods, uncovering significant differences among species in their biosynthetic capacities.

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Early-branching anaerobic fungi are critical for hydrolyzing untreated lignocellulose in the digestive tracts of large herbivorous animals. While these fungi were discovered more than 40 years ago, they remain understudied and underexploited. Recent advances in -omics technologies, however, have enabled studies that reveal significant biosynthetic potential within anaerobic fungal genomes for diverse biotechnological applications.

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Background: Plant biomass is an abundant but underused feedstock for bioenergy production due to its complex and variable composition, which resists breakdown into fermentable sugars. These feedstocks, however, are routinely degraded by many uncommercialized microbes such as anaerobic gut fungi. These gut fungi express a broad range of carbohydrate active enzymes and are native to the digestive tracts of ruminants and hindgut fermenters.

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