B. Henrissat - Decoding glycobiological information from genomes and metagenomes

Abstract

DNA can be sequenced so fast and so cheaply that one now determines the genome sequence of an organism like one was sequencing a single gene in the 90's. The colossal improvements in sequencing technologies now also enable to investigate complex microbial communities, not only at the taxonomical level, but also at the functional level. Among the myriads of proteins encoded by genomes or microbiomes, some are more revealing than others. Through a number of examples, I will discuss the reasons that enable carbohydrate-active enzymes to reveal more functional information than most other categories of enzymes.

Suggested reading:

• Lombard V, Golaconda Ramulu H, Drula E, Coutinho PM, Henrissat B (2014) The Carbohydrate-active enzymes database (CAZy) in 2013. Nucleic Acids Res. 42, D490-D495
• El Kaoutari A, Armougom F, Gordon JI, Raoult R, Henrissat B (2013) Abundance and variety of carbohydrate-active enzymes in the human gut microbiota. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 11, 497-504
• Ohm RA, Feau F, Henrissat B, Schoch CL, Horwitz BA, Barry KW, Condon BJ, Copeland AC, Dhillon B, Glaser F, Hesse CN, Kosti I, LaButti K, Lindquist EA, Lucas S, Salamov AA, Bradshaw RE, Ciuffetti L, Hamelin RC, Kema GHJ, Lawrence C, Scott JA, Spatafora JW, Turgeon BG, de Wit PJGM, Zhong S, Goodwin SB, Grigoriev IV (2012) Diverse lifestyles and strategies of plant pathogenesis encoded in the genomes of eighteen Dothideomycetes fungi. PLoS Pathogens, 8(12): e1003037
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