Secretome Analysis of Thermothelomyces thermophilus LMBC 162 Cultivated with Tamarindus indica Seeds Reveals CAZymes for Degradation of Lignocellulosic Biomass

The analysis of the secretome allows us to identify the proteins, especially carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), secreted by different microorganisms cultivated under different conditions. The CAZymes are divided into five classes containing different protein families. Thermothelomyces thermophilus is a thermophilic ascomycete, a source of many glycoside hydrolases and oxidative enzymes that aid in the breakdown of lignocellulosic materials. The secretome analysis of T. thermophilus LMBC 162 cultivated with submerged fermentation using tamarind seeds as a carbon source revealed 79 proteins distributed between the five diverse classes of CAZymes: 5.55% auxiliary activity (AAs); 2.58% carbohydrate esterases (CEs); 20.58% polysaccharide lyases (PLs); and 71.29% glycoside hydrolases (GHs). In the identified GH families, 54.97% are cellulolytic, 16.27% are hemicellulolytic, and 0.05 are classified as other. Furthermore, 48.74% of CAZymes have carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs). Observing the relative abundance, it is possible to state that only thirteen proteins comprise 92.19% of the identified proteins secreted and are probably the main proteins responsible for the efficient degradation of the bulk of the biomass: cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin.