Researchers uncover “unknown mechanism” for degrading cellulose; potential impact on cellulosic biofuels
In Washington, researchers found that C. thermocellum uses a previously unknown mechanism to degrade cellulose, in addition to other known degradation mechanisms. This discovery helps explain C. thermocellum’s superior ability to digest biomass and demonstrates the highly diverse strategies evolved in nature for biomass conversion. Researchers are using the study’s findings to develop optimal systems for breaking down plant matter to produce biofuels and biobased chemicals.
To date, C. thermocellum is the most efficient microorganism known for solubilizing lignocellulosic biomass. Its high cellulose digestion capability has been attributed to the organism’s efficient cellulases consisting of both a free enzyme system and a tethered cellulosomal system, where multiple carbohydrate active enzymes are organized by primary and secondary scaffolding proteins to generate large protein complexes attached to the bacterial cell wall. Recently, U.S. Department of Energy BioEnergy Science Center researchers discovered that C. thermocellum also expresses a type of cellulosomal system that is not bound to the cell wall, a “cell‐free” cellulosomal system.
Researchers believe the cell‐free cellulosome complex functions as a “long-range” cellulosome because it can diffuse away from the cell and degrade polysaccharide substrates distant from the bacterial cells. This discovery reveals that C. thermocellum utilizes not only all the previously known cellulase degradation mechanisms (cellulosomes and free enzymes), but also a new category of scaffolded enzymes not attached to the cell. This unexpected finding explains C. thermocellum’s superior performance on biomass, demonstrating that nature’s strategies for biomass conversion are not yet fully understood and could provide further opportunities for microbial enzyme discovery and engineering efforts.
Category: Research
