TraitMech

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starch degradation

traitmech:000115 · CLASS · REVIEWED

A biopolymer-degradation metabolism in which an organism hydrolyzes starch (amylose and amylopectin) to maltooligosaccharides and glucose using amylases and related glycoside hydrolases.

Starch degradation hydrolyzes amylose/amylopectin to glucose

Evidence-backed causal sketch linking amylase systems to hydrolysis of starch into maltooligosaccharides and glucose.

Starch degradation hydrolyzes amylose/amylopectin to glucose Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for starch degradation.

Edge evidence

  • amylases / starch-active glycoside hydrolases enables starch degradation RO:0002327

    Amylases hydrolyze starch's alpha-1,4 and alpha-1,6 linkages.

    • DOI:10.1016/S0168-1656(01)00407-2 van der Maarel et al. review alpha-amylase-family enzymes that hydrolyze starch.
  • starch degradation produces glucose METPO:2000202

    Starch hydrolysis yields maltodextrins and glucose.

    • DOI:10.1093/nar/gkt1178 CAZy review classifies glycoside hydrolases (including amylases) used to degrade starch and other polysaccharides.
  • starch (amylose/amylopectin) is hydrolyzed to maltooligosaccharides

    Endo-amylolytic cleavage of starch yields maltooligosaccharides as the core trait-level intermediate.

    • DOI:10.1007/s00018-023-04812-w Reports hydrolysis of starch into maltooligosaccharides; flagged as broad trait-level core edge across taxa.
  • amylases / starch-active glycoside hydrolases hydrolyzes maltooligosaccharides METPO:2000013

    Alpha-amylase endo-cleaves starch alpha-1,4 bonds to generate maltooligosaccharides.

    • DOI:10.1007/s00018-023-04812-w An alpha-amylase hydrolyzes starch into maltooligosaccharides; generic alpha-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) chemistry.
  • alpha-glucosidase / glucoamylase degrades maltooligosaccharides METPO:2000007

    Alpha-glucosidase/glucoamylase exo-acts on maltooligosaccharides to release glucose.

    • DOI:10.1128/mbio.01506-24 Alpha-glucosidase/glucoamylase degrades maltooligosaccharides to glucose; generic terminal exo-hydrolysis step.
  • alpha-glucosidase / glucoamylase produces glucose METPO:2000202

    Exo-amylolytic release of glucose monomers from maltooligosaccharides.

    • DOI:10.1128/mbio.01506-24 Alpha-glucosidase/glucoamylase degrades maltooligosaccharides to glucose, the terminal assimilable sugar.

Provenance

Source
METPO (2025-11-25)
Definition source
DOI:10.1016/S0168-1656(01)00407-2

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • amylolytic RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1016/S0168-1656(01)00407-2

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 (starch degradation / amylolysis); leftover round, sub-variant of biopolymer degradation.

  2. · CURATED_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

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

  3. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:17234×1).

  4. · ENRICH_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added 4 evidence-backed generic edges (3 new nodes) from the deep-research report.

  5. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (METPO:2000202×1).

  6. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:17593×1).

  7. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 2 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (METPO:2000013×1, METPO:2000007×1).