Dead Ecosystems Tell No Tales: How Mangrove Mortality Silences Polyextremophilic Enzymes Screening

The reliance on fossil energy is a significant issue that poses serious environmental and economic problems, fueling the search to find alternative sources of energy that are sustainable. The present study harnesses combined metagenomic-culturomics research to realise the bio-technological capabilities of mangrove microbiomes, screening bacterial isolates of alive and dead ecosystems for poly-extremophilic lignocellulolytic enzymes to solve the fossil energy crisis. The metagenomic profiling showed that changes in the microbial community composition and predicted functional potential differences were significant between alive and dead mangrove ecosystems. Mangrove metagenomic bacterial communities were more prosperous regarding metabolic diversity and the abundance of genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes. Likewise, PICRUSt2 assisted in comprehending that dead mangrove sites were enriched in necrotrophic and stress-related enzymes, including cytochrome c oxidase and N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase. A significant percentage of isolates exhibited acidothermolytic capabilities. Interestingly, the enzyme versatility was more widely observed in Alive mangrove locations, whereas some dead mangrove locations contained poly-extremophilic lignocellulolytic capacity. Notably, Vibrio abundance became a relative measure of ecosystem vitality, directly portraying lignocellulolytic enzyme biotropy. This study overturns the conventional divide between ecology and biotechnology, showing that mangrove microbiomes are living libraries of industrial biocatalysts--in cases where degraded ecosystems constitute irreversible biotechnological losses.