Department of Geosciences
and Natural Resource Management

OxyMiST

Oxygen Constraints on Microbial Secretomes during
Plant Cell Wall Turnover

The OxyMiST consortium will establish how oxygen contributes to whole plant cell wall (PCW) degradation by microbial secretomes. The role of oxygen in promoting and restricting these enzymatic processes has been largely overlooked in the past.

The project extends from environmental microbial diversity to metasecretomics, from controlled laboratory PCW degradation to defined enzyme reactivity, and from molecular structure to fine-tuned enzymatic modifications. Leading scientists in Copenhagen, Marseille and Cambridge will take advantage of existing expertise and infrastructure to develop new advanced methodologies such as phylopeptidomics for this study.

The primary outcome of this research will be a completely revised view of the dynamic and temporal changes in the spectrum and activity of enzymes secreted during the turnover of PCWs. In particular, the constraint imparted by the dissolved O₂ in two ecosystems (peat and wood) will be defined.

Research

The project will integrate research carried out at the three research institutions:

French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Food and Environment – INRAE, Marseille
The University of Cambridge - UC, Cambridge
The University of Copenhagen - UCPH, Copenhagen.

The work is organised in three broad themes encompassing ecology, microbiology and enzymology.

Publications

Methionine oxidation of carbohydrate-active enzymes during white-rot wood decay
Lise Molinelli, Jean-Guy Berrin, Lionel Tarrago, et al. (2024), Appl Environ Microbiol 90:e01931-23

At the root of plant symbioses: Untangling the genetic mechanisms behind mutualistic associations
Annie Lebreton, Jean Keller (2024), Curr Opin Plant Biol 77:102448

Stable functional structure despite high taxonomic variability across fungal communities in soils of old-growth montane forests
Qingchao Zeng, Annie Lebreton, Francis M. Martin, et al. (2023), Microbiome 11, 217

The Ustilago maydis AA10 LPMO is active on fungal cell wall chitin
Roseline A. Yao, Jean-Guy Berrin, et al. (2023), Appl Environ Microbiol 89:e00573-23

A fast, sensitive and fluorescent LPMO activity assay
Johan Ø. Ipsen, Katja S. Johansen, Søren Brander (2023), Front Microbiol 14:1128470

Eudicot primary cell wall glucomannan is related in synthesis, structure, and function to xyloglucan
Li Yu, Paul Dupree, et al. (2022), The Plant Cell 34, 4600-4622