Journal Article

Improving Enzymes for Biomass Conversion: A Basic Research Perspective

Walton, Jonathan D, Banerjee, Goutami, Scott-Craig, John S

2010

Overview

The cost of enzymes for converting plant biomass materials to fermentable sugars is a major impediment to the development of a practical lignocellulosic ethanol industry. Research on enzyme optimization with the goal of reducing the cost of converting biomass materials such as corn stover into glucose, xylose, and other sugars is being actively pursued in private industry, academia, and government laboratories. Under the auspices of the Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, we are taking several approaches to address this problem, including “bioprospecting” for superior key enzymes, protein engineering, and high-level expression in plants. A particular focus is the development of synthetic enzyme mixtures, in order to learn which of the hundreds of known enzymes are important and in what ratios. A core set comprises cellobiohydrolase, endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, endoxylanase, and β-glucosidase. Accessory enzymes include esterases, proteases, nonhydrolytic proteins, and glycosyl hydrolases that cleave the less frequent chemical linkages found in plant cell walls.

• Publisher: New York : Springer-Verlag,Springer-Verlag,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Alcohol industry / bioenergy / Biomass / Biomass energy / Biomedical and Life Sciences / cell walls / Cellulase / Cellulose / cellulose 1,4-beta-cellobiosidase / Cereals / corn stover / endo-1,4-beta-glucanase / Enzymes / esterases / Ethanol / Fermentation / Funding / glucose / Great Lakes / industry / Laboratories / learning / Life Sciences / Lignocellulose / Plant biomass / Plant Breeding/Biotechnology / Plant Ecology / Plant Genetics and Genomics / Plant Sciences / Proteases / protein engineering / proteinases / Proteins / Raw materials / Stover / Studies / Sugar / Wood Science & Technology / xylose