Difference in behaviour between two bacteria during lignin bioconversion

In this work, the behaviour of two ligninolytic bacteria Pandoraea norimbergensis and Comamonas composti on Kraft and Protobind lignins was investigated by using multiple approaches. The two bacteria can grow on both lignins with specific strategies, which might be due to variation in their ability to use mixed G and S units (Protobind lignin) in contrast to only G unit (Kraft lignin). Degradation of lignins was accompanied by phenol-oxidase activities production which are likely responsible of the liberation of phenolic compounds from lignins, and the structural modification observed by FTIR and SEM. The fingerprints of extracellular phenolic components by UHPLC-EST-HRMS have shown for the first time the differential release of phenolic oligomers (dimers and trimers) according to the technical lignins used. Identifying these oligomers would provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of bacterial degradation of lignins and pave the way for the development of their biological transformation and the release of potential phenolic compounds as platform molecules for green chemistry.

Article : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2025.06.004

Contact : harivony.rakotoarivonina@univ-reims.fr; corinne.ivaldi@univ-reims.fr