Articles

Evaluating polymer interplay after hot water pretreatment to investigate maize stem internode recalcitrance

Biomass recalcitrance is governed by various molecular and structural factors but the interplay between these multiscale factors remains unclear. In this study, hot water pretreatment (HWP) was applied to maiz...

Authors: Amandine Leroy, Xavier Falourd, Loïc Foucat, Valérie Méchin, Fabienne Guillon and Gabriel Paës

Function of ORFC of the polyketide synthase gene cluster on fatty acid accumulation in Schizochytrium limacinum SR21

As a potential source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), Schizochytrium sp. has been widely used in industry for PUFA production. Polyketide synthase (PKS) cluster is supposed to be the primary way of PUFA sy...

Authors: Yanyan Shi, Zhen Chen, Yixin Li, Xingyu Cao, Lijie Yang, Yiyuan Xu, Zhipeng Li and Ning He

Enhanced lignin biodegradation by consortium of white rot fungi: microbial synergistic effects and product mapping

As one of the major components of lignocellulosic biomass, lignin has been considered as the most abundant renewable aromatic feedstock in the world. Comparing with thermal or catalytic strategies for lignin d...

Authors: Tangwu Cui, Bo Yuan, Haiwei Guo, Hua Tian, Weimin Wang, Yingqun Ma, Changzhi Li and Qiang Fei

Crystal structure and functional characterization of an oligosaccharide dehydrogenase from Pycnoporus cinnabarinus provides insights into fungal breakdown of lignocellulose

Fungal glucose dehydrogenases (GDHs) are FAD-dependent enzymes belonging to the glucose-methanol-choline oxidoreductase superfamily. These enzymes are classified in the “Auxiliary Activity” family 3 (AA3) of t...

Authors: Gabriele Cerutti, Elena Gugole, Linda Celeste Montemiglio, Annick Turbé-Doan, Dehbia Chena, David Navarro, Anne Lomascolo, François Piumi, Cécile Exertier, Ida Freda, Beatrice Vallone, Eric Record, Carmelinda Savino and Giuliano Sciara

Oxidative stress tolerance contributes to heterologous protein production in Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris (syn. Komagataella phaffii) is an important yeast system for heterologous protein expression. A robust P. pastoris mutant with oxidative and thermal stress cross-tolerance was acquired in our prev...

Authors: Nai-Xin Lin, Rui-Zhen He, Yan Xu and Xiao-Wei Yu

Optimization of biogas yield from lignocellulosic materials with different pretreatment methods: a review

Population increase and industrialization has resulted in high energy demand and consumptions, and presently, fossil fuels are the major source of staple energy, supplying 80% of the entire consumption. This h...

Authors: Kehinde Oladoke Olatunji, Noor A. Ahmed and Oyetola Ogunkunle

Bacterial alginate metabolism: an important pathway for bioconversion of brown algae

Brown macroalgae have attracted great attention as an alternative feedstock for biorefining. Although direct conversion of ethanol from alginates (major components of brown macroalgae cell walls) is not amenab...

Authors: Lanzeng Zhang, Xue Li, Xiyue Zhang, Yingjie Li and Lushan Wang

Cellulosic biofuel production using emulsified simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (eSSF) with conventional and thermotolerant yeasts

Future expansion of corn-derived ethanol raises concerns of sustainability and competition with the food industry. Therefore, cellulosic biofuels derived from agricultural waste and dedicated energy crops are ...

Authors: Shannon M. Hoffman, Maria Alvarez, Gilad Alfassi, Dmitry M. Rein, Sergio Garcia-Echauri, Yachin Cohen and José L. Avalos

Magnetic COFs as satisfied support for lipase immobilization and recovery to effectively achieve the production of biodiesel by great maintenance of enzyme activity

Production of biodiesel from renewable sources such as inedible vegetable oils by enzymatic catalysis has been a hotspot but remains a challenge on the efficient use of an enzyme. COFs (Covalent Organic Framew...

Authors: Zi-Wen Zhou, Chun-Xian Cai, Xiu Xing, Jun Li, Zu-E. Hu, Zong-Bo Xie, Na Wang and Xiao-Qi Yu

Stress tolerance enhancement via SPT15 base editing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is widely used in traditional brewing and modern fermentation industries to produce biofuels, chemicals and other bioproducts, but challenged by various harsh industrial conditions, such ...

Authors: Yanfang Liu, Yuping Lin, Yufeng Guo, Fengli Wu, Yuanyuan Zhang, Xianni Qi, Zhen Wang and Qinhong Wang

Harnessing microbial wealth for lignocellulose biomass valorization through secretomics: a review

The recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass is a major constraint to its high-value use at industrial scale. In nature, microbes play a crucial role in biomass degradation, nutrient recycling and ecosystem fu...

Authors: Sivasamy Sethupathy, Gabriel Murillo Morales, Yixuan Li, Yongli Wang, Jianxiong Jiang, Jianzhong Sun and Daochen Zhu

Extraction of sugarcane bagasse arabinoxylan, integrated with enzymatic production of xylo-oligosaccharides and separation of cellulose

Sugarcane processing roughly generates 54 million tonnes sugarcane bagasse (SCB)/year, making SCB an important material for upgrading to value-added molecules. In this study, an integrated scheme was developed...

Authors: Leila Khaleghipour, Javier A. Linares-Pastén, Hamid Rashedi, Seyed Omid Ranaei Siadat, Andrius Jasilionis, Said Al-Hamimi, Roya R. R. Sardari and Eva Nordberg Karlsson

Fungal deterioration of the bagasse storage from the harvested sugarcane

Sugarcane is an essential crop for sugar and ethanol production. Immediate processing of sugarcane is necessary after harvested because of rapid sucrose losses and deterioration of stalks. This study was condu...

Authors: Na Peng, Ziting Yao, Ziting Wang, Jiangfeng Huang, Muhammad Tahir Khan, Baoshan Chen and Muqing Zhang

Alkaline post-incubation improves the saccharification of poplar after hydrogen peroxide–acetic acid pretreatment

Hydrogen peroxide–acetic acid (HPAA) is widely used in pretreatment of lignocellulose because it has a good capability in selective delignification. However, high concentration (more than 60%) of HPAA increase...

Authors: Peiyao Wen, Ying Zhang, Junjun Zhu, Yong Xu and Junhua Zhang

CAZyme prediction in ascomycetous yeast genomes guides discovery of novel xylanolytic species with diverse capacities for hemicellulose hydrolysis

Ascomycetous yeasts from the kingdom fungi inhabit every biome in nature. While filamentous fungi have been studied extensively regarding their enzymatic degradation of the complex polymers comprising lignocel...

Authors: Jonas L. Ravn, Martin K. M. Engqvist, Johan Larsbrink and Cecilia Geijer

Hybrid promoter engineering strategies in Yarrowia lipolytica: isoamyl alcohol production as a test study

In biological cells, promoters drive gene expression by specific binding of RNA polymerase. They determine the starting position, timing and level of gene expression. Therefore, rational fine-tuning of promote...

Authors: Yu Zhao, Shiqi Liu, Zhihui Lu, Baixiang Zhao, Shuhui Wang, Cuiying Zhang, Dongguang Xiao, Jee Loon Foo and Aiqun Yu

A metabolic model of Lipomyces starkeyi for predicting lipogenesis potential from diverse low-cost substrates

Lipomyces starkeyi has been widely regarded as a promising oleaginous yeast with broad industrial application prospects because of its wide substrate spectrum, good adaption to fermentation inhibitors, excellent ...

Authors: Wei Zhou, Yanan Wang, Junlu Zhang, Man Zhao, Mou Tang, Wenting Zhou and Zhiwei Gong

Plasticity engineering of plant monoterpene synthases and application for microbial production of monoterpenoids

Plant monoterpenoids with structural diversities have extensive applications in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels. Due to the strong dependence on the geographical locations and seasonal annual gr...

Authors: Dengwei Lei, Zetian Qiu, Jianjun Qiao and Guang-Rong Zhao

Investigation of the impact of a broad range of temperatures on the physiological and transcriptional profiles of Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 for high-temperature-tolerant recombinant strain development

The model ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis has many advantages for diverse biochemical production. Although the impact of temperature especially high temperature on the growth and ethanol production of Z...

Authors: Runxia Li, Wei Shen, Yongfu Yang, Jun Du, Mian Li and Shihui Yang

Engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica transporters for high-efficient production of biobased succinic acid from glucose

Succinic acid (SA) is a crucial metabolic intermediate and platform chemical. Development of biobased processes to achieve sustainable SA production has attracted more and more attention in biotechnology indus...

Authors: Zhennan Jiang, Zhiyong Cui, Ziwei Zhu, Yinghang Liu, Ya-jie Tang, Jin Hou and Qingsheng Qi

Integrated NIRS and QTL assays reveal minor mannose and galactose as contrast lignocellulose factors for biomass enzymatic saccharification in rice

Identifying lignocellulose recalcitrant factors and exploring their genetic properties are essential for enhanced biomass enzymatic saccharification in bioenergy crops. Despite genetic modification of major wa...

Authors: Zhen Hu, Youmei Wang, Jingyuan Liu, Yuqi Li, Yanting Wang, Jiangfeng Huang, Yuanhang Ai, Peng Chen, Yuqing He, Muhammad Nauman Aftab, Lingqiang Wang and Liangcai Peng

Understanding the effects of different residual lignin fractions in acid-pretreated bamboo residues on its enzymatic digestibility

During the dilute acid pretreatment process, the resulting pseudo-lignin and lignin droplets deposited on the surface of lignocellulose and inhibit the enzymatic digestibility of cellulose in lignocellulose. H...

Authors: Wenqian Lin, Jinlai Yang, Yayue Zheng, Caoxing Huang and Qiang Yong

Protocols for isolating and characterizing polysaccharides from plant cell walls: a case study using rhamnogalacturonan-II

In plants, a large diversity of polysaccharides comprise the cell wall. Each major type of plant cell wall polysaccharide, including cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, has distinct structures and functions ...

Authors: William J. Barnes, Sabina Koj, Ian M. Black, Stephanie A. Archer-Hartmann, Parastoo Azadi, Breeanna R. Urbanowicz, Maria J. Peña and Malcolm A. O’Neill

Enzymatic hydrolysis of the gelatinous layer in tension wood of Salix varieties as a measure of accessible cellulose for biofuels

Salix (willow) species represent an important source of bioenergy and offer great potential for producing biofuels. Salix spp. like many hardwoods, produce tension wood (TW) characterized by special fibres (G-fib...

Authors: Jie Gao, Mohamed Jebrane, Nasko Terziev and Geoffrey Daniel

Modular biosynthesis of plant hemicellulose and its impact on yeast cells

The carbohydrate polymers that encapsulate plants cells have benefited humans for centuries and have valuable biotechnological uses. In the past 5 years, exciting possibilities have emerged in the engineering ...

Authors: Madalen Robert, Julian Waldhauer, Fabian Stritt, Bo Yang, Markus Pauly and Cătălin Voiniciuc

Correction to: Ectopic overexpression of a type-II DGAT (CeDGAT2-2) derived from oil-rich tuber of Cyperus esculentus enhances accumulation of oil and oleic acid in tobacco leaves

Authors: Yu Gao, Yan Sun, Huiling Gao, Ying Chen, Xiaoqing Wang, Jinai Xue, Xiaoyun Jia and Runzhi Li

Two Fusarium copper radical oxidases with high activity on aryl alcohols

Biomass valorization has been suggested as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based energy and commodities. In this context, the copper radical oxidases (CROs) from Auxiliary Activity Family 5/Subfamily 2 ...

Authors: Maria Cleveland, Mickael Lafond, Fan Roderick Xia, Ryan Chung, Paul Mulyk, Jason E. Hein and Harry Brumer

MdFRK2-mediated sugar metabolism accelerates cellulose accumulation in apple and poplar

Cellulose is not only a common component in vascular plants, but also has great economic benefits for paper, wood, and industrial products. In addition, its biosynthesis is highly regulated by carbohydrate met...

Authors: Jing Su, Chunxia Zhang, Lingcheng Zhu, Nanxiang Yang, Jingjing Yang, Baiquan Ma, Fengwang Ma and Mingjun Li

Organosolv pretreatment assisted by carbocation scavenger to mitigate surface barrier effect of lignin for improving biomass saccharification and utilization

Ethanol organosolv (EOS) pretreatment is one of the most efficient methods for boosting biomass saccharification as it can achieve an efficient fractionation of three major constituents in lignocellulose. Howe...

Authors: Qiulu Chu, Wenyao Tong, Jianqiang Chen, Shufang Wu, Yongcan Jin, Jinguang Hu and Kai Song

Selective delignification of poplar wood with a newly isolated white-rot basidiomycete Peniophora incarnata T-7 by submerged fermentation to enhance saccharification

Pretreatment is a critical step required for efficient conversion of woody biomass into biofuels and platform chemicals. Fungal pretreatment is regarded as one of the most promising technology for woody biomas...

Authors: Jiangshan Ma, Huimin Yue, Hongqian Li, Jing Zhang, Yanghong Zhang, Xiaoling Wang, Si Gong and Gao-Qiang Liu

Kinetic modeling of phosphorylase-catalyzed iterative β-1,4-glycosylation for degree of polymerization-controlled synthesis of soluble cello-oligosaccharides

Cellodextrin phosphorylase (CdP; EC 2.4.1.49) catalyzes the iterative β-1,4-glycosylation of cellobiose using α-d-glucose 1-phosphate as the donor substrate. Cello-oligosaccharides (COS) with a degree of polymeri...

Authors: Mario Klimacek, Chao Zhong and Bernd Nidetzky

Techno-economic evaluation of microalgae high-density liquid fuel production at 12 international locations

Microalgae-based high-density fuels offer an efficient and environmental pathway towards decarbonization of the transport sector and could be produced as part of a globally distributed network without competin...

Authors: John Roles, Jennifer Yarnold, Karen Hussey and Ben Hankamer

Water reuse and growth inhibition mechanisms for cultivation of microalga Euglena gracilis

Microalgae can contribute to more than 40% of global primary biomass production and are suitable candidates for various biotechnology applications such as food, feed products, drugs, fuels, and wastewater trea...

Authors: Mingcan Wu, Ming Du, Guimei Wu, Feimiao Lu, Jing Li, Anping Lei, Hui Zhu, Zhangli Hu and Jiangxin Wang

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of the thermophilic lignocellulose-degrading fungus Thielavia terrestris LPH172

Biomass-degrading enzymes with improved activity and stability can increase substrate saccharification and make biorefineries economically feasible. Filamentous fungi are a rich source of carbohydrate-active e...

Authors: Monika Tõlgo, Silvia Hüttner, Peter Rugbjerg, Nguyen Thanh Thuy, Vu Nguyen Thanh, Johan Larsbrink and Lisbeth Olsson

Extracellular riboflavin induces anaerobic biofilm formation in Shewanella oneidensis

Some microorganisms can respire with extracellular electron acceptors using an extended electron transport chain to the cell surface. This process can be applied in bioelectrochemical systems in which the orga...

Authors: Miriam Edel, Gunnar Sturm, Katrin Sturm-Richter, Michael Wagner, Julia Novion Ducassou, Yohann Couté, Harald Horn and Johannes Gescher

An overview to process design, simulation and sustainability evaluation of biodiesel production

The overwhelming concerns due to over exploitation of fossil resources necessitate the utilization of alternative energy resources. Biodiesel has been considered as one of the most adaptable alternative to fos...

Authors: Mustafa Kamal Pasha, Lingmei Dai, Dehua Liu, Miao Guo and Wei Du

Revealing two important tryptophan residues with completely different roles in a dye-decolorizing peroxidase from Irpex lacteus F17

Dye-decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs) represent a novel family of heme peroxidases that use H₂O₂ as the final electron acceptor to catalyze the oxidation of various organic compounds. A DyP from Irpex lacteus F17 (

Authors: Liuqing Li, Tao Wang, Taohua Chen, Wenhan Huang, Yinliang Zhang, Rong Jia and Chao He

Polysaccharide utilization loci-driven enzyme discovery reveals BD-FAE: a bifunctional feruloyl and acetyl xylan esterase active on complex natural xylans

Nowadays there is a strong trend towards a circular economy using lignocellulosic biowaste for the production of biofuels and other bio-based products. The use of enzymes at several stages of the production pr...

Authors: Lisanne Hameleers, Leena Penttinen, Martina Ikonen, Léa Jaillot, Régis Fauré, Nicolas Terrapon, Peter J. Deuss, Nina Hakulinen, Emma R. Master and Edita Jurak

Improvements of the productivity and saccharification efficiency of the cellulolytic β-glucosidase D2-BGL in Pichia pastoris via directed evolution

β-Glucosidases are essential for cellulose hydrolysis by catalyzing the final cellulolytic degradation of cello-oligomers and cellobiose to glucose. D2-BGL is a fungal glycoside hydrolase family 3 (GH3) β-gluc...

Authors: Mu-Rong Kao, Su-May Yu and Tuan-H ua David Ho

Evaluation of acidogenesis products’ effect on biogas production performed with metagenomics and isotopic approaches

During the acetogenic step of anaerobic digestion, the products of acidogenesis are oxidized to substrates for methanogenesis: hydrogen, carbon dioxide and acetate. Acetogenesis and methanogenesis are highly i...

Authors: Anna Detman, Michał Bucha, Laura Treu, Aleksandra Chojnacka, Łukasz Pleśniak, Agnieszka Salamon, Ewa Łupikasza, Robert Gromadka, Jan Gawor, Agnieszka Gromadka, Wojciech Drzewicki, Marta Jakubiak, Marek Janiga, Irena Matyasik, Mieczysław K. Błaszczyk, Mariusz Orion Jędrysek…

Oleaginous yeasts respond differently to carbon sources present in lignocellulose hydrolysate

Microbial oils, generated from lignocellulosic material, have great potential as renewable and sustainable alternatives to fossil-based fuels and chemicals. By unravelling the diversity of lipid accumulation p...

Authors: Jule Brandenburg, Johanna Blomqvist, Volha Shapaval, Achim Kohler, Sabine Sampels, Mats Sandgren and Volkmar Passoth

Precise high-throughput online near-infrared spectroscopy assay to determine key cell wall features associated with sugarcane bagasse digestibility

Sugarcane is one of the most crucial energy crops that produces high yields of sugar and lignocellulose. The cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) and lignin are the two kinds of key cell wall features that acco...

Authors: Xinru Li, Fumin Ma, Chengping Liang, Maoyao Wang, Yan Zhang, Yufei Shen, Muhammad Adnan, Pan Lu, Muhammad Tahir Khan, Jiangfeng Huang and Muqing Zhang

Novel molecular biological tools for the efficient expression of fungal lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases in Pichia pastoris

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are attracting large attention due their ability to degrade recalcitrant polysaccharides in biomass conversion and to perform powerful redox chemistry.

Authors: Lukas Rieder, Katharina Ebner, Anton Glieder and Morten Sørlie

Quantitative proteomic comparison of salt stress in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the snow alga Chlamydomonas nivalis reveals mechanisms for salt-triggered fatty acid accumulation via reallocation of carbon resources

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a model green alga strain for molecular studies; its fully sequenced genome has enabled omic-based analyses that have been applied to better understand its metabolic responses to stre...

Authors: E. Hounslow, C. A. Evans, J. Pandhal, T. Sydney, N. Couto, T. K. Pham, D. James Gilmour and P. C. Wright

From simple and specific zymographic detections to the annotation of a fungus Daldinia caldariorum D263 that encodes a wide range of highly bioactive cellulolytic enzymes

Lignocellulolytic enzymes are essential for agricultural waste disposal and production of renewable bioenergy. Many commercialized cellulase mixtures have been developed, mostly from saprophytic or endophytic ...

Authors: Meng-Chun Lin, Hsion-Wen Kuo, Mu-Rong Kao, Wen-Dar Lin, Chen-Wei Li, Kuo-Sheng Hung, Sheng-Chih Yang, Su-May Yu and Tuan-Hua David Ho

The oleaginous astaxanthin-producing alga Chromochloris zofingiensis: potential from production to an emerging model for studying lipid metabolism and carotenogenesis

The algal lipids-based biodiesel, albeit having advantages over plant oils, still remains high in the production cost. Co-production of value-added products with lipids has the potential to add benefits and is...

Authors: Yu Zhang, Ying Ye, Fan Bai and Jin Liu

Synergistic mechanism of GH11 xylanases with different action modes from Aspergillus niger An76

Xylan is the most abundant hemicellulose polysaccharide in nature, which can be converted into high value-added products. However, its recalcitrance to breakdown requires the synergistic action of multiple enz...

Authors: Shu Zhang, Sha Zhao, Weihao Shang, Zijuan Yan, Xiuyun Wu, Yingjie Li, Guanjun Chen, Xinli Liu and Lushan Wang

Production of the biocommodities butanol and acetone from methanol with fluorescent FAST-tagged proteins using metabolically engineered strains of Eubacterium limosum

The interest in using methanol as a substrate to cultivate acetogens increased in recent years since it can be sustainably produced from syngas and has the additional benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissio...

Authors: Maximilian Flaiz, Gideon Ludwig, Frank R. Bengelsdorf and Peter Dürre

Identification and characterization of proteins of unknown function (PUFs) in Clostridium thermocellum DSM 1313 strains as potential genetic engineering targets

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics can identify and quantify thousands of proteins from individual microbial species, but a significant percentage of these proteins are unannotated and hence classified as prot...

Authors: Suresh Poudel, Alexander L. Cope, Kaela B. O’Dell, Adam M. Guss, Hyeongmin Seo, Cong T. Trinh and Robert L. Hettich

Engineering oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides for overproduction of fatty acid ethyl esters

Production of biofuels and green chemicals by microbes is currently of great interest due to the increasingly limited reserves of fossil fuels. Biodiesel, especially fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs), is conside...

Authors: Yang Zhang, Jie Peng, Huimin Zhao and Shuobo Shi