Novelties of the cellulolytic system of a marine bacterium applicable to cellulosic sugar production

The saprophytic marine bacterium Saccharophagus degradans is capable of degrading whole plant material by releasing sugars through the coordinated expression of carbohydrases. The genome sequence of this bacterium indicates the presence of complex carbohydrase systems whose biochemical activities and regulation are being explored. This review summarizes the novelties of these carbohydrase systems that are most applicable to biofuel production. Multi-enzyme systems were shown to be expressed by this bacterium to process the cellulose, hemicellulose and pectic polymers of plant cell walls. The metabolism of these polymers of the bacterium and application to biomass processing are discussed.