Microbial communities within anaerobic ecosystems have evolved to degrade and recycle carbon throughout the earth. A number of strains have been isolated from anaerobic microbial communities, which are rich in carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) to liberate fermentable sugars from crude plant biomass (lignocellulose). However, natural anaerobic communities host a wealth of microbial diversity that has yet to be harnessed for biotechnological applications to hydrolyze crude biomass into sugars and value-added products. This review highlights recent advances in 'omics' techniques to sequence anaerobic microbial genomes, decipher microbial membership, and characterize CAZyme diversity in anaerobic microbiomes. With a focus on the herbivore rumen, we further discuss methods to discover new CAZymes, including those found within multi-enzyme fungal cellulosomes. Emerging techniques to characterize the interwoven metabolism and spatial interactions between anaerobes are also reviewed, which will prove critical to developing a predictive understanding of anaerobic communities to guide in microbiome engineering.

中文翻译：

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大自然的回收者：厌氧微生物群落推动了原始生物质的解构。

厌氧生态系统中的微生物群落已经进化为降解和循环利用整个地球上的碳。已从厌氧微生物群落中分离出许多菌株，这些菌株富含碳水化合物活性酶（CAZymes），可从植物粗生物质（木质纤维素）中释放出可发酵的糖。然而，自然厌氧社区拥有丰富的微生物多样性，尚未将其用于生物技术应用，以将粗生物质水解为糖和增值产品。这篇综述着重介绍了“组学”技术在厌氧微生物基因组测序，解密微生物成员以及表征厌氧微生物组中CAZyme多样性方面的最新进展。我们以草食动物瘤胃为重点，进一步讨论了发现新的CAZymes的方法，包括在多酶真菌纤维素体中发现的那些。还审查了表征厌氧菌之间相互交织的代谢和空间相互作用的新兴技术，这将证明对发展对厌氧菌群落的预测性理解以指导微生物组工程至关重要。