Microbial degradation of

hemicellulose
• Hemicellulose is any of several heteropolymers
(matrix polysaccharides), present along with
cellulose in almost all plant cell walls.

• While cellulose is crystalline, strong, and resistant to

hydrolysis, hemicellulose has a random structure
with little strength.

• It is easily hydrolyzed by acid or base as well as

hemicellulase enzymes.
• Unlike cellulose, hemicellulose consists of shorter
chains – 500–3,000 sugar units as opposed to 7,000–
15,000 glucose molecules per polymer seen in
cellulose.

• In addition, hemicellulose is a branched polymer, while

cellulose is unbranched.

• Hemicelluloses are embedded in the cell walls of

plants, sometimes in chains that form a 'ground' - they
bind with pectin to cellulose to form a network of
cross-linked fibres.
•This class of polymers is divided into two categories.
– Homoglycans: these contain only a single monosaccharide
type, but they usually are not the major hemicelluloses in
the plant. Typical homoglycans are xylan, mannan, or
galactan, which are polymers containing xylose, mannose,
or galactose units.
– Heteroglycans: These frequently abundant
polysaccharides contain more than one kind of
monosaccharide

– The heteroglycans are named on the basis of the

sugars in the polymer; thus, plants contain
• glucomannans,
• arabinoxylans,
• arabinogalactans, in their cell walls.
• The structure of such polymers are usually complex.
Some may have 50-200 sugar units made up from
the several sugars characteristic of these wall
constituents.

• the hemicelluloses are usually branched.

• The arrangement of different units in the

heteroglycan is not chaotic, even in the branched
molecules, and distinct and ordered arrangements
are typical.
• Furthermore, only a few sugars are common.
• These are:

• Pentoses (5 carbon sugars): xylose and

arabinose

• Hexoses (6 carbon sugars): mannose, glucose,

and galactose
 • Decomposition

• Initial decoposition  rapid

• Later decoposition  slow

• Organism produce some enzymes which creates masking effect. So, it

seems these degrade the hemicellulose to a substancial level.

• Hemicellulose  CO2 + cellular constituents

• Decomposition is governed by physical and chemical characteristics of the

habitat (pH, temp etc).

• It is higher in aerobic, higher temp, high inorganic nutrient.

• Also mature plant hemicellulose undergo slow decomposition

• Microorganism
• Diverse  as the structure of hemilecculose is
heterogeneous.

• Both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms are

involved in degradation.

• Fungi
– Hyphomycetes
– Zygomycetes
– Pyrenomycetes
– hymenomycetes
• Bacteria
– Bacillus
– Cytophaga
– Erwinia
– Pseudomonas
– Sporocytophaga
– Xanthomonas

• Actinomycetes
– Streptomyces

• These organisms use hemicellulose as the sole

source of carbon and energy
• Fungi
– Alternaria
– Aspergillus
– Chaetomium
– Fusarium
– Glomerulla,
– Penicillium,
– Trichoderma
 • Degradation of mannan

• Rapidly degraded in soil

• Bacillus and Vibrio
• A number of actinomycetes
• Fungi  Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Penicilliuj,
Rhizopus, Trichoderma nad Zygorhynchus
 • Degradation of galactans

• Basidiomycetes, aerobic and anaerobic

bacteria, actinomycetes

• Fungi  Aspergillis, Cunninghamella,

Humicola, Penicilloujm, Rhizopus,
Trichoderma, Zygorynchus

• Rate of decomposition is less than xylan or

mannan
 • Biochemistry of Hemicellulose degradation

• Large polymer  has to be broken down into

smaller/simple compounds by extracellular
enzymes. These simple molecules then enters the
cells and assimilated.

• 3 types of enzymes involved:

– Endo enzymes: randonly cleave bond

– Exo enzymes: cleave either a single dimer or monomer

from one end of the polysaccharide chain

– Glycosidases: hydrolyse the oligomers or disaccharides

produced from the action of the other two enzymes and
produces simple sugars
• endoenzymes splits xylan into xylobiose
(disaccharide) and higher oligosaccharides

• These higher oligosaccharides are split by

exoenzymes and glycosidases to xylose
 • Mannanases
• Either constitutive or inducible enzymes
• Different mannanases are known and one type do
not attach other types of mannan (due to variability
in building blocks)

• Galactanases
• Bond   - (1  4) or  - (1  3) between galactose
units.

• Need two different enzymes.

• End products  galactose, galactobiose,

galactotriose
 • Glycosidases

• Specific for particular substrate and are named accordingly

• e. g. :- xylosidase act on xylose oligomer  xylose produced

• Mannosidase act on mannose oligomer  mannose

produced

• A single organism cannot decompose too many types of

hemicellulose.

• Exception is Fusarium oxysporum growing on components of

tomato tissue that synthesize  arabanase, xylanase,
galactanase, and glycosidases.