Cellulases Dig Deep
نویسندگان
چکیده
Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is key for the production of second generation biofuels, which represent a long-standing leading area in the field of sustainable energy. Despite the wealth of knowledge about cellulase structure and function, the elusive mechanism by which these enzymes disintegrate the complex structure of their insoluble substrate, which is the gist of cellulose saccharification, is still unclear. We herein present a time-resolved structural characterization of the action of cellulases on a nano-flat cellulose preparation, which enabled us to overcome previous limitations, using atomic force microscopy (AFM). As a first step in substrate disintegration, elongated fissures emerge which develop into coniform cracks as disintegration continues. Detailed data analysis allowed tracing the surface evolution back to the dynamics of crack morphology. This, in turn, reflects the interplay between surface degradation inside and outside of the crack. We observed how small cracks evolved and initially increased in size. At a certain point, the crack diameter stagnated and then started decreasing again. Stagnation corresponds with a decrease in the total amount of surface which is fissured and thus leads to the conclusion that the surface hydrolysis "around" the cracks is proceeding more rapidly than inside the cracks. The mesoscopic view presented here is in good agreement with various mechanistic proposals from the past and allows a novel insight into the structural dynamics occurring on the cellulosic substrate through cellulase action.
منابع مشابه
Bag of Words Meets Bags of Popcorn
‘ This problem is selected from one of the Kaggle’s competitions [2]. In this problem, we dig a little ”deeper” into sentiment analysis. Word2Vec is a deep-learning inspired method that focuses on the meaning of words. Word2Vec [3] attempts to understand meaning and semantic relationships among words. It works in a way that is similar to deep approaches, such as recurrent neural nets or deep ne...
متن کاملDefining cellulase in the glycosyl hydrolase family 48 1 Sequence, Structure, and Evolution of Cellulases in the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 48
Background: Cellulases are non-homologous isofunctional enzymes, which prevents their unambiguous identification in genomic datasets. Results: Cellulases from glycoside hydrolase family 48 have distinct evolutionarily conserved sequence and structural features. Conclusion: Conserved sequence/structure features can be used to differentiate cellulases from non-cellulases in genomic datasets. Sign...
متن کاملNo-Nonsense Functions for Long Noncoding RNAs
The mysterious secrets of long noncoding RNAs, often referred to as the Dark Matter of the genome, are gradually coming to light. Several recent papers dig deep to reveal surprisingly complex and diverse functions of these enigmatic molecules.
متن کاملHidden cellulases in termites: revision of an old hypothesis.
The intestinal flagellates of termites produce cellulases that contribute to cellulose digestion of their host termites. However, 75% of all termite species do not harbour the cellulolytic flagellates; the endogenous cellulase secreted from the midgut tissue has been considered a sole source of cellulases in these termites. Using the xylophagous flagellate-free termites Nasutitermes takasagoens...
متن کامل