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REVIEW article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1437098
This article is part of the Research Topic Natural Microbial Communities in the Production of Sustainable Biofuels and Chemicals View all 3 articles

A metagenomic approach to demystify the anaerobic digestion black box and achieve higher biogas yield: A review

Provisionally accepted
Iván Ostos Iván Ostos 1*Luz M. Florez Pardo Luz M. Florez Pardo 2Carolina Camargo Gil Carolina Camargo Gil 3
  • 1 University of Santiago de Cali, Cali, Colombia
  • 2 Autonomous University of Occident, Cali, Cauca, Colombia
  • 3 Research Center of Sugar Cane, Cali, Cauca, Colombia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The use of fossil fuel and the increasing accumulation of organic waste drive the need to explore sustainable energy alternatives. One option is anaerobic digestion, which utilizes secondary biomass to obtain biogas while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Given the crucial role of microbial activity in anaerobic digestion, there is a pressing need to deepen the understanding of this microbial community, as it holds key information for biogas production. While metagenomics has emerged as a valuable tool for unravelling microbial composition and opening the possibility of predicting functional potential in biodigestion, it falls short in interpreting functional and metabolic interactions, limiting comprehensive insights of the roles of the individuals in the community. It emphasizes the significance of enhancing metagenomics scope through innovative tools showcasing the often-unnoticed crucial role of microbiota during biomass digestion, that can more accurate elucidate microbial ecological fitness, shared metabolic pathways, and interspecies interactions. By addressing current limitations and integrating metagenomics with other omics approaches, more accurate predictive techniques can be developed, facilitating informed decision-making to optimize AD processes and enhance biogas yields, thus contributing to a more sustainable future.

    Keywords: methane1, metagenome2, microbiota3, syntrophy4, sequencing5, Diet6, GCM7, SRM8

    Received: 23 May 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ostos, Florez Pardo and Camargo Gil. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Iván Ostos, University of Santiago de Cali, Cali, Colombia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.