Monday, April 19, 2010
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Improve specific activity of Trichoderma reesei enzymes induced by selected biomass feedstock

Hui Wei1, Melvin Tucker2, Igor Bogorad1, Lauren Magnusson1, John Baker1, Andrew Bowersox1, Qi Xu1, Yining Zeng1, Yu-San Liu1, Michael Himmel1, Pin-Ching Maness1, and Shi-You Ding1. (1) Biosciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd. (MS-3323), Golden, CO 80401, (2) National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd. (MS-3323), Golden, CO 80401

Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels requires efficient cell wall degrading enzymes at low cost.  One promising approach is to produce enzymes by using their designated degradation target biomass as growth carbon source and presumably also an enzyme inducer for the production organism.  This approach assumes that the acclimation of the cellulolytic microorganism to the complex target biomass will produce enzymes better suited to breaking down the biomass. To test this hypothesis, the aerobic fungus Trichoderma reesei was grown on four different substrates to represent different recalcitrance indexes, one highly processed commercial crystalline cellulose (i.e., Avicel), and three others that were much more nearly “native”, i.e., corn stover, switchgrass and yellow poplar that had simply been milled and washed with water and ethanol. Enzymatic activities of up to 17-day growth broths were analyzed on substrates: (1) cellulose such as Avicel for cellulase, (2) xylan for xylanase, and (3) complex biomass substrates.  The observed overall rates of sugar-release and the relative rates of release of specific sugars are used to select the optimal pairings of enzymes and their target complex biomass substrates. 

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