14-14: Tuning Penicillium echinulatum lignocellulolytic enzyme cocktail by components culture media manipulation

Second generation bioethanol production rests on the production of a cheap and effective cellulolytic cocktail to promote enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material. Cellulolytic but also accessory enzyme activities have being demonstrated to be important to breakdown hemicelluloses and pectin plant cell wall components increasing cellulose accessibility to cellulases. This study aimed to modulate cellulases and accessory enzymes hemicellulases and pectinase activities in Penicillium echinulatum using components culture media manipulation in shaking flasks and controlled bioreactor experiments with the aid of Design of Experiment (DOE). It has been shown that cellulase induction may be attained using steam pretreated sugar cane bagasse (SEB) (cellulose content of 60% w/w) and that industrial grade yeast extract (YE), soybean flour (SF) and wheat flour (WF) helped to modulate and significantly increase Fpase, xylanase, β-glucosidase and pectinase activities in the enzyme complex. Moreover, mathematical modeling from DOE helped to tune the enzyme cocktail profile in terms of those enzymatic activities. In a hole it was possible to shape enzyme cocktails with these relevant enzymatic activities and it is believed that this strategy may be useful in plant cell wall deconstruction.