Development and Production of Enzymes for the Selective and Efficient Degradation of Plant Biomass

 

Plant biomass represents an attractive, abundant and sustainable resource that can supply a variety of products for direct usage or for chemical or fermentative production processes in industry. In particular the polysaccharides of plant cell walls, cellulose and various types of hemicelluloses are interesting raw materials for applications in industrial biotechnology. To this end, enzymes involved in plant cell wall polysaccharide decomposition represent important biocatalysts that allow the efficient saccharification of (hemi)celluloses while simultaneously operating under relatively mild conditions. To be of the best possible value for environmentally friendly industrial production processes, such enzymes (i) must perform the desired catalytical function as efficiently as possible, and (ii) must be available in sufficient amounts at an affordable price. In collaboration with partners from Russian research institutions (Prof. Dr. A. Sinitsyn, INBI RAS; Prof. Dr. S. Yarotsky, Genetika) our group is working on both of these aspects. On one hand, we are developing an enzyme toolbox containing enzymes, in particular from anaerobic thermophilic bacteria, which have a broad range of different substrate and cleavage specificities with respect to hemicellulose polysaccharides. Such enzymes are useful for plant biomass degradation processes and can also be used to generate specific oligosaccharides from hemicelluloses, for example xyloglucan, for applications such as food or feed additives or neutraceuticals. On the other hand, we are working on the establishment and improvement of microbial host organisms for the efficient high-level production of selected enzymes for (hemi)cellulose degradation.