By contrast, lignin is an aromatic polymer that can be modified into beneficial industrial chemicals. Enzymes extracted from fungi can disintegrate lignin, which is considered the hardest among the three polymers to collapse. However, researchers are looking for bacterial enzymes that are simpler to synthesize.
As part of an earlier study, Guillermina Hernandez-Raquet and collaborators demonstrated that gut microbes from four termite species could disintegrate lignin in anaerobic bioreactors. At present, together with Yuki Tobimatsu and Mirjam Kabel, they wished to have a closer examination of the process through which microbes from the wood-eating insects degrade lignin in wheat straw, and determine the changes they make to this material.