Alternatives to petroleum-derived fuels are being sought in order to reduce the world's dependence on non-renewable resources. The most common renewable fuel today is ethanol derived from corn grain (starch) and sugar cane (sucrose). It is expected that there will be limits to the supply of these raw materials in the near future, therefore lignocellulosic biomass is seen as an attractive feedst...

The cultivation procedure and the fungal strain applied for enzyme production may influence levels and profile of the proteins produced. The proteomic analysis data presented here provide critical information to compare proteins secreted by Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger when cultivated through submerged and sequential fermentation processes, using steam-explosion sugarcane bagasse as...

Cellulases and hemicellulases are the main industrial sources from different microorganisms used to depolymerise plant biomass to simple sugars that are converted to chemical intermediates and biofuels, such as ethanol. Cellulases are formed adaptively, and several positive (xyr1, Ace2, HAP2/3/5) and negative (Ace1, Cre1) components involved in this regulation are now known. In this review, we ...

Plant cell walls are comprised of cellulose and hemicellulose and other polymers that are intertwined, and this complex structure presents a barrier to degradation by pure cellulases or hemicellulases. In this study, we determined the synergistic effects on corn cell wall degradation by the action of cellulosomal xylanase XynA and cellulosomal cellulases from Clostridium cellulovorans. XynA min...

Five independent collections, comprising a total of 34 clones encoding cellulases, hemicellulases and cell surface proteins of Clostridium thermocellum, were searched for overlapping or contiguous DNA fragments. The clones were hybridized to large genomic restriction fragments separated by pulse-field electrophoresis. Clones hybridizing to the same fragment were further compared by hybridizatio...

Studies about Clostridia have focused especially on Pathogens or cellulases. In this chapter we focus on Clostridium cellulovorans, a non-pathogenic Clostridium. C. cellulovorans is a cellulose degrader and produces an enzymatic complex called “cellulosome” in which several cellulases are bound tightly to a scaffolding protein. In addition to cellulosomes, C. cellulovorans produces free cellula...

Filamentous fungi of the Aspergillus niger group are native soil saprophytic fungi. Industrial strains of this group have been extensively used for the production of plant degrading enzymes for the food and beverage, animal feed and paper-and-pulp industries. Recombinant DNA technology allows for the overproduction of these enzymes in copious amounts. The advantages and limitations of A. niger ...

The coordinated action of carbohydrate-active enzymes has mainly been evaluated for the purpose complete saccharification plant biomass (lignocellulose) to sugars. By contrast, accessory hemicellulases on xylan debranching and recovery is less well characterized. Here, activity two family GH115 α-glucuronidases (SdeAgu115A from Saccharophagus degradans, AxyAgu115A Amphibacillus xylanus) spruce ...

BACKGROUND The metagenomic analysis of gut microbiomes has emerged as a powerful strategy for the identification of biomass-degrading enzymes, which will be no doubt useful for the development of advanced biorefining processes. In the present study, we have performed a functional metagenomic analysis on comb and gut microbiomes associated with the fungus-growing termite, Pseudacanthotermes mili...