REVIEW article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1638551
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in Cellulosomes and Their Application in Bioenergy ProductionView all 4 articles
Structural and functional insights into cellulosomes: Masters of plant cell wall degradation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- 2Univerza v Ljubljani, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Cellulosomes are complex multi-enzyme systems that enable efficient cellulose breakdown in some anaerobic bacteria and fungi. Understanding cellulosome functionality plays a crucial role in expanding their potential for industrial plant biomass degradation and valorization. While knowledge on these intricate structures has been accumulating for several decades, recent insights into their modular architecture, dynamic assembly mechanisms, and potential for synthetic biology-driven redesign for biotechnological applications call for a comprehensive re-evaluation of their structural and functional complexity. This review explores recent advances in understanding these cellulolytic nanomachines, focusing on substrate recognition and binding mechanisms, including the roles of carbohydrate-binding modules and cohesin-dockerin interactions. Cell-surface mechanisms that allow these complexes to attach to and effectively degrade plant biomass are also reviewed. Furthermore, structural adaptations to diverse substrates and environmental conditions are discussed, highlighting the flexibility and the interplay between the cellulosomal components, both catalytic and non-catalytic, and their impact on optimizing cellulose degradation, including carbon source sensing, and its role in modulating cellulosome architecture and activity. Deleted: architects 2 Carbohydrate-binding modules and their interplay with other cellulosomal domains Deleted: -the cellulosomes, large multienzyme complexes 80 optimized for cellulose-rich biomass degradation-can be found 81 Deleted: Altogether, cellulosomal complexes have been shown to 82 enhance biomass degradation by optimizing enzyme synergy and 83 substrate targeting, offering an interesting option for different 84 industrial applications, particularly second-generation biofuels. 85 Furthermore, the modular architecture of cellulosomes has inspired 86 the design of artificial (designer) complexes, tailored for even more 87 efficient and targeted degradation of plant biomass (Vodovnik and 88 Lindič, 2025).
Keywords: Cellulose, CBM, cohesin, Dockerin, Scaffoldin, SLH DC: designer cellulosome, CAZYmes: carbohydrate-active enzymes, CBM: carbohydrate binding module
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lindič and Vodovnik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nataša Lindič, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.