Mining of latent feruloyl esterase resources in rumen and insight into dual-functional feruloyl esterase-xylanase from Pecoramyces ruminantium F1.

Feruloyl esterase (FAE) has been extensively studied for its crucial auxiliary effect in the biodegradation of lignocellulose. In this study, a FAE database including 15,293 amino acid sequences was established to gain a better understanding of rumen FAEs through multi-omics analysis. The higher expression level of rumen fungal FAEs over bacterial FAEs suggests that rumen fungi may have more important role in the lignocellulose degradation. Analyses of the information acquired through the database showed that the rumen FAEs are mainly derived from anaerobic fungi. One special candidate harboring both feruloyl esterase and endoxylanase modules (Fae00416) from anaerobic fungus Pecoramyces ruminantium F1 was found to have intramolecular synergy between the esterase and xylanase domains, which underpins the importance of this enzymes in heteropolysaccharide degradation. The discovery of novel and efficient FAEs in rumen could contribute to enhancing the production of biofuels and bioproducts.