Microbial enrichment and meta-omics analysis identify CAZymes from mangrove sediments with unique properties.

Although lignocellulose is the most abundant and renewable natural resource for biofuel production, its use remains under exploration because of its highly recalcitrant structure. Its deconstruction into sugar monomers is mainly driven by carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). To develop highly efficient and fast strategies to discover biomass-degrading enzymes for biorefinery applications, an enrichment process combined with integrative omics approaches was used to identify new CAZymes.

Integrated analysis of gene expression from carbon metabolism, proteome and metabolome, reveals altered primary metabolism in Eucalyptus grandis bark, in response to seasonal variation.

Background: Seasonal variation is presumed to play an important role in the regulation of tree growth, especially for Eucalyptus grandis, a fast-growing tree. This variation may induce changes in the whole tree at transcriptional, protein and metabolite levels. Bark represents an important group of tissues that protect trees from desiccation and pathogen attack, and it has been identified as potential feedstock for lignocellulosic derived biofuels.

Effects of pretreatment on morphology, chemical composition and enzymatic digestibility of eucalyptus bark: a potentially valuable source of fermentable sugars for biofuel production - part 1.

Background: In recent years, the growing demand for biofuels has encouraged the search for different sources of underutilized lignocellulosic feedstocks that are available in sufficient abundance to be used for sustainable biofuel production. Much attention has been focused on biomass from grass. However, large amounts of timber residues such as eucalyptus bark are available and represent a potential source for conversion to bioethanol.

Crystallite width determines monolayer hydration across a wide spectrum of celluloses isolated from plants.

Relating cellulose structure to its water uptake is a classical problem with many investigations done through measurements of cellulose "crystallinity". However, there is presently a growing consensus that crystallinity measurements are appreciably uncertain, leading to ambiguous interpretations of underlying cellulose organization. In this scenario, this article revisits the relations between cellulose structure and water uptake, moving the emphasis away from degree of crystallinity and directing it toward crystallite width, which is inferred with less ambiguity from the broadening of 200 X-ray diffraction peaks.

Insights on how the activity of an endoglucanase is affected by physical properties of insoluble celluloses.

Cellulose physical properties like crystallinity, porosity, and particle size are known to influence cellulase activity, but knowledge is still insufficient for activity prediction from such measurable substrate characteristics. With the aim of illuminating enzyme-substrate relationships, this work evaluates a purified hyperthermophilic endo-1,4-beta-glucanase (from Pyrococcus furiosus) acting on 13 celluloses characterized for crystallinity and crystal width (by X-ray diffraction), wet porosity (by thermoporometry), and particle size (by light scattering). Activities are analyzed by the Michaelis-Menten kinetic equation, which is justified by low enzyme-substrate affinity.

Cloning and endogenous expression of a Eucalyptus grandis UDP-glucose dehydrogenase cDNA.

UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (UGDH) catalyzes the oxidation of UDP-glucose (UDP-Glc) to UDP-glucuronate (UDP-GlcA), a key sugar nucleotide involved in the biosynthesis of plant cell wall polysaccharides. A full-length cDNA fragment coding for UGDH was cloned from the cambial region of 6-month-old E. grandis saplings by RT-PCR.