Aromatic compounds derived from lignin are of great interest for renewable biotechnical applications. They can serve in many industries e.g. as biochemical building blocks for bioplastics or biofuels, or as antioxidants, flavor agents or food preservatives. In nature, lignin is degraded by microorganisms, which results in the release of homocyclic aromatic compounds. Homocyclic aromatic compounds can also be linked to polysaccharides, tannins and even found freely in plant biomass. As these compounds are often toxic to microbes already at low concentrations, they need to be degraded or converted to less toxic forms. Prior to ring cleavage, the plant- and lignin-derived aromatic compounds are converted to seven central ring-fission intermediates, i.e. catechol, protocatechuic acid, hydroxyquinol, hydroquinone, gentisic acid, gallic acid and pyrogallol through complex aromatic metabolic pathways and used as energy source in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Over the decades, bacterial aromatic metabolism has been described in great detail. However, the studies on fungal aromatic pathways are scattered over different pathways and species, complicating a comprehensive view of fungal aromatic metabolism. In this review, we depicted the similarities and differences of the reported aromatic metabolic pathways in fungi and bacteria. Although both microorganisms share the main conversion routes, many alternative pathways are observed in fungi. Understanding the microbial aromatic metabolic pathways could lead to metabolic engineering for strain improvement and promote valorization of lignin and related aromatic compounds.

衍生自木质素的芳族化合物对于可再生生物技术应用非常感兴趣。它们可以在许多行业中用作生物塑料或生物燃料的生化基础，或用作抗氧化剂，调味剂或食品防腐剂。在自然界中，木质素被微生物降解，导致同环芳族化合物的释放。杂环芳香族化合物也可以与多糖，单宁酸连接，甚至可以在植物生物质中自由地发现。由于这些化合物通常已经对低浓度的微生物产生毒性，因此需要将其降解或转化为毒性较小的形式。在裂解环之前，将植物和木质素衍生的芳族化合物转化为七个中心环裂变中间体，即邻苯二酚，原儿茶酸，羟基喹诺酚，对苯二酚，龙胆酸，没食子酸和邻苯三酚通过复杂的芳香代谢途径而被用作三羧酸循环中的能源。几十年来，已经详细描述了细菌的芳香代谢。然而，关于真菌芳香途径的研究分散在不同的途径和物种上，使真菌芳香代谢的综合观点复杂化。在这篇综述中，我们描述了真菌和细菌中报道的芳香族代谢途径的异同。尽管两种微生物共有主要的转化途径，但在真菌中观察到许多替代途径。了解微生物的芳香代谢途径可能会导致代谢工程改良菌株，并促进木质素和相关芳香化合物的增值。