Synergistic degradation of fucoidans in the ocean
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- 2Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- 3Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 4Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- 5International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, India
- 6Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected]
- 7Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. [email protected]
Abstract
Fucoidans, a class of complex polysaccharides produced by brown algae and diatoms, contribute to long-term carbon sequestration owing to their resistance to microbial degradation 1,2 . Although individual microorganisms can break down portions of these polysaccharides 3–5 , it remains unclear whether complete breakdown is possible in nature and, if so, by what mechanisms. Here we show that fucoidans are degraded through synergistic interactions between specialized bacteria with complementary metabolic functions. Using metabolomic analysis of a reconstructed marine consortium, we uncovered metabolic guilds of bacteria that preferentially degrade either the sulfated fucose backbone or the side branches of rare monomers. This functional division of labour leads to an unexpectedly high number of synergistic interactions between different degraders that enhanced degradation efficiency up to 97.1%. Despite varying fucoidan structures across different types of algae 6 , the metabolic functions of degraders remained conserved, enabling quantitative prediction of degradation outcomes based on community and substrate composition. The frequent co-occurrence of functionally complementary fucoidan degraders in ocean metagenomes suggests that synergistic degradation is a globally relevant strategy. Our findings suggest that the environmental turnover of complex biopolymers depends not only on individual metabolic capabilities of degraders but also on ecological interactions shaped by substrate architecture. This work provides a mechanistic framework for understanding carbon cycling in the ocean and for engineering synthetic microbial consortia to degrade recalcitrant polysaccharides.
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BibTeX
@article{sichert2026synergistic,
title = {{Synergistic degradation of fucoidans in the ocean}},
author = {Andreas Sichert and Shaul Pollak and Taylor Priest and Akshit Goyal and Samuel Miravet‐Verde and Shinichi Sunagawa and Otto X. Cordero and Uwe Sauer},
journal = {Nature},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10980-z},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10980-z},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Synergistic degradation of fucoidans in the ocean
AU - Andreas Sichert
AU - Shaul Pollak
AU - Taylor Priest
AU - Akshit Goyal
AU - Samuel Miravet‐Verde
AU - Shinichi Sunagawa
AU - Otto X. Cordero
AU - Uwe Sauer
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
JO - Nature
DO - 10.1038/s41586-026-10980-z
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10980-z
AB - Fucoidans, a class of complex polysaccharides produced by brown algae and diatoms, contribute to long-term carbon sequestration owing to their resistance to microbial degradation 1,2 . Although individual microorganisms can break down portions of these polysaccharides 3–5 , it remains unclear whether complete breakdown is possible in nature and, if so, by what mechanisms. Here we show that fucoidans are degraded through synergistic interactions between specialized bacteria with complementary metabolic functions. Using metabolomic analysis of a reconstructed marine consortium, we uncovered metabolic guilds of bacteria that preferentially degrade either the sulfated fucose backbone or the side branches of rare monomers. This functional division of labour leads to an unexpectedly high number of synergistic interactions between different degraders that enhanced degradation efficiency up to 97.1%. Despite varying fucoidan structures across different types of algae 6 , the metabolic functions of degraders remained conserved, enabling quantitative prediction of degradation outcomes based on community and substrate composition. The frequent co-occurrence of functionally complementary fucoidan degraders in ocean metagenomes suggests that synergistic degradation is a globally relevant strategy. Our findings suggest that the environmental turnover of complex biopolymers depends not only on individual metabolic capabilities of degraders but also on ecological interactions shaped by substrate architecture. This work provides a mechanistic framework for understanding carbon cycling in the ocean and for engineering synthetic microbial consortia to degrade recalcitrant polysaccharides.
SN - 0028-0836
SN - 1476-4687
ER -