Enzymes in Commercial Cellulase Preparations Bind Differently to Dioxane Extracted Lignins

Title:Enzymes in Commercial Cellulase Preparations Bind Differently to Dioxane Extracted Lignins

Volume: 6 Issue: 2

Author(s): John M. Yarbrough*, Ashutosh Mittal, Rui Katahira, Elisabeth Mansfield, Larry E. Taylor, Stephen R. Decker, Michael E. Himmel and Todd Vinzant

Affiliation:

• Biosciences Center, NREL, Golden, CO 80401,United States

Keywords: Lignin, protein binding, cellulase, β-D-glucosidase, xylanase.

Abstract: Background: Commercial fungal cellulases used in biomass-to-biofuels processes can be grouped into three general classes: native, augmented, and engineered.

Objective: To evaluate lignin binding affinities of different enzyme activities in various commercial cellulase formulations in order to determine if enzyme losses due to lignin binding can be modulated by using different enzymes of the same activity

Methods: We used water:dioxane (1:9) to extract lignin from pretreated corn stover. Commercial cellulases were incubated with lignin and the unbound supernatants were evaluated for individual enzyme loss by SDS=PAGE and these were correlated with activity loss using various pNP-sugar substrates.

Results: Colorimetric assays for general glycosyl hydrolase activities showed distinct differences in enzyme binding to lignin for each enzyme activity. Native systems demonstrated low binding of endo- and exo-cellulases, high binding of xylanase, and moderate β-glucosidase binding. Engineered cellulase mixtures exhibited low binding of exo-cellulases, very strong binding of endocellulases and β- glucosidase, and mixed binding of xylanase activity. The augmented cellulase had low binding of exocellulase, high binding of endocellulase and xylanase, and moderate binding of β-glucosidase activities. Bound and unbound activities were correlated with general molecular weight ranges of proteins as measured by loss of proteins bands in bound fractions on SDS-PAGE gels. Lignin-bound high molecular weight bands correlated with binding of β-glucosidase activity.

Conclusions: While β-glucosidases demonstrated high binding in many cases, they have been shown to remain active. Bound low molecular weight bands correlated with xylanase activity binding. Contrary to other literature, exocellulase activity did not show strong lignin binding. The variation in enzyme activity binding between the three classes of cellulases preparations indicate that it is certainly possible to alter the binding of specific glycosyl hydrolase activities. It remains unclear whether loss of endocellulase activity to lignin binding is problematic for biomass conversion.

Cite this article as:

Yarbrough M. John*, Mittal Ashutosh, Katahira Rui, Mansfield Elisabeth, Taylor E. Larry, Decker R. Stephen, Himmel E. Michael and Vinzant Todd, Enzymes in Commercial Cellulase Preparations Bind Differently to Dioxane Extracted Lignins, Current Biotechnology 2017; 6 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2211550105666160916170630

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2211550105666160916170630	Print ISSN 2211-5501
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 2211-551X