Monday, April 19, 2010
LL Conference Facility (Hilton Clearwater Beach)
Clostridium thermocellum produces enzyme complexes called cellulosomes to degrade biomass, and genomic studies have confirmed that this organism produces no exocellulases from glycosyl hyrolase families 6 or 7. The only enzymes confirmed to be exoglucanses in this system are from GH family 48, although several members of GH family 9, thought to be processive endoglucanases likely assist the GH48 enzymes in hydrolyzing crystalline cellulose.
Therefore, the deconstruction of cellulose likely depends heavily upon the action of the GH48 enzymes, which are produced by C. thermocellum in both a cellulosomal and non-cellulosomal configurations.
We are building a library of GH48 enzymes from a diversity of sources for both biochemical characterization and activity testing. We will report results from initial studies of available enzymes using both wild type and chimeric constructs. Understanding the mechanism of action of these enzymes is critical to the challenge of improving the wild type performance of C. thermocellum as a cellulose degrader.