Access to cellulose limits the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis: the role of amorphogenesis

The efficient enzymatic saccharification of cellulose at low cellulase (protein) loadings continues to be a challenge for commercialization of a process for bioconversion of lignocellulose to ethanol. Currently, effective pretreatment followed by high enzyme loading is needed to overcome several substrate and enzyme factors that limit rapid and complete hydrolysis of the cellulosic fraction of biomass substrates. One of the major barriers faced by cellulase enzymes is their limited access to much of the cellulose that is buried within the highly ordered and tightly packed fibrillar architecture of the cellulose microfibrils. Rather than a sequential 'shaving' or 'planing' of the cellulose fibrils from the…

• GB
  Genome British Columbia
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• NR
  Natural Resources Canada