Fungal extracellular polymeric substance matrices – Highly specialized microenvironments that allow fungi to control soil organic matter decomposition reactions
Filamentous fungi play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle as they are the primary decomposers of lignocellulose in soil organic matter (SOM). Fungi secrete a wide range of oxidative and hydrolytic enzymes, and generate radicals through extracellular secondary metabolites to decompose SOM. To study fungal decomposition of SOM, the activities of isolated enzymes are typically studied as prox
