TraitMech

TraitMech › METABOLISM

chitinolysis

traitmech:000112 · CLASS · REVIEWED

A biopolymer-degradation metabolism in which an organism hydrolyzes chitin to N-acetylglucosamine oligomers and monomers using secreted chitinases.

Chitinolysis hydrolyzes chitin to N-acetylglucosamine

Evidence-backed causal sketch linking secreted chitinases to chitin hydrolysis into N-acetylglucosamine oligomers and monomers.

Chitinolysis hydrolyzes chitin to N-acetylglucosamine Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for chitinolysis.

Edge evidence

  • chitinases enables chitinolysis RO:0002327

    Secreted chitinases drive chitin depolymerization.

    • DOI:10.1080/07388550601168223 Bhattacharya et al. review the properties and applications of bacterial chitinases.
  • chitinolysis produces N-acetylglucosamine METPO:2000202

    Chitin hydrolysis yields N-acetylglucosamine.

    • DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149 Beier & Bertilsson review bacterial chitin degradation strategies.
  • chitinases hydrolyzes to chitooligosaccharides ((GlcNAc)n)

    Chitinases cleave beta-1,4 bonds of insoluble chitin to soluble chitooligosaccharides.

    • DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149 Extracellular cleavage of insoluble chitin into soluble oligomers; broad taxonomic support.
    • DOI:10.1007/s11356-024-33728-6 Chitinases cleave the beta-1,4-glycosidic bonds of chitin to produce chitooligosaccharides.
  • exochitinase / chitobiosidase hydrolyzes to diacetylchitobiose ((GlcNAc)2)

    Processive exo-chitinases/chitobiosidases release diacetylchitobiose from chitin chain ends.

    • DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149 Processive exoenzymes release disaccharides from chain ends.
    • DOI:10.3390/toxins16010026 Chitobiosidases release di-acetylchitobiose from chain ends.
  • beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase hydrolyzes to N-acetylglucosamine

    beta-N-acetylglucosaminidases hydrolyze chitooligomers/chitobiose to GlcNAc monomers.

    • DOI:10.3390/toxins16010026 beta-N-acetylglucosaminidases hydrolyze oligomers ((GlcNAc)2-(GlcNAc)4) to GlcNAc monomers.
  • lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO; AA10) oxidatively cleaves chitin

    LPMOs (AA10) oxidatively cleave the chitin polymer and accelerate hydrolytic depolymerization.

    • DOI:10.15407/microbiolj86.04.053 Polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) oxidatively cleave the polymer and accelerate hydrolysis.

Provenance

Source
METPO (2025-11-25)
Definition source
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (2)

  • chitinolytic RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149
  • chitin degradation RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00149

kg-microbe context

Matched 1 kg-microbe node via parent_proxy.

  • METPO:1000060 [-1.052, -1.766, -1.194, +0.291, …]

512-dim DeepWalkSkipGramEnsmallen embedding from kg-microbe (2026-04-25).

Nearest neighbors in embedding space

Top-8 cosine-similar METPO traits from the 2026-04-25 deepwalk (512-D).

Curation history

  1. · PROPOSED_FROM_RESEARCH · claude

    Proposed candidate METABOLISM trait (chitinolysis); sub-variant of biopolymer degradation.

  2. · CURATED_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added evidence-backed causal graph (chitinase hydrolysis of chitin) with RO/METPO predicate groundings; promoted PROPOSED to REVIEWED.

  3. · ENRICH_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added 4 evidence-backed generic edges (6 new nodes) from the deep-research report.

  4. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:17029×1).

  5. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (UniProtKB:A0A086GXI9×1).