The next dimension of CAZymes - Inferring the interplay between groups of different families

Microbial biomass degradation is a huge collaboration exercise for the genome encoded enzymes. Particularly the secreted fiber-active enzymes have an incredibly complicated interplay during which some enzymes may have the direct catalytic effect on the polysaccharides whereas other enzymes may only assist in the conversion indirectly as accessory enzymes. Such accessory enzymes have been greatly overlooked, as the effect is not apparent with the enzyme alone but only in combination with one or more other enzymes. The aim of this work is to identify such putative enzymatic combinations, by systematic identification of co-occurring CAZymes via genome comparisons, to be tested in experimental settings. Thus, unraveling enzyme interplay in microbial biomass conversion while understanding their deployed biological strategies. This method relies on our classification of all CAZy families into functional subgroupings powered by our webserver CUPP.INFO [1].