SummaryCurrent research and development in cellulosic ethanol production has been focused mainly on agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops such as corn stover and switchgrass; however, woody biomass remains a very important feedstock for ethanol production. The precise composition of hemicellulose in the wood is strongly dependent on the plant species, therefore different types of enzymes are needed based on hemicellulose complexity and type of pretreatment. In general, hardwood species have much lower recalcitrance to enzymes than softwood. For hardwood, xylanases, beta‐xylosidases and xyloglucanases are the main hemicellulases involved in degradation of the hemicellulose backbone, while for softwood the effect of mannanases and beta‐mannosidases is more relevant. Furthermore, there are different key accessory enzymes involved in removing the hemicellulosic fraction and increasing accessibility of cellulases to the cellulose fibres improving the hydrolysis process. A diversity of enzymatic cocktails has been tested using from low to high densities of biomass (2–20% total solids) and a broad range of results has been obtained. The performance of recently developed commercial cocktails on hardwoods and softwoods will enable a further step for the commercialization of fuel ethanol from wood.

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BackgroundTo reduce the cost of the enzymes for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, two main strategies have been followed: one, the reduction of enzyme dosing by the use of more efficient and stable enzymatic cocktails; another, to include accessory enzymes in the cocktails to increase yields by reducing the recalcitrant carbohydrate fraction remaining at the end of the process. To guide this second strategy, we have explored the chemical bond composition of different fractions of recalcitrant carbohydrates after enzymatic hydrolysis.ResultsTwo lignocellulosic feedstocks of relevance for the biofuels industry have been analyzed, corn stover and sugarcane straw. On comparing the composition of chemical bonds of the starting pretreated material with samples after standard and forced hydrolysis (with enzyme overdosing), we obtained similar sugar and chemical bond composition.ConclusionsThis suggests that the current enzymatic cocktails bear the set of enzymes needed to hydrolyze these feedstocks. From our point of view, the results show the need for a parallel fine-tuning of the enzymatic cocktails with the pretreatment process to maximize sugar release yield.

Most organisms performing oxygenic photosynthesis contain either cytochrome c(6) or plastocyanin, or both, to transfer electrons from cytochrome b(6)-f to photosystem I. Even though plastocyanin has superseded cytochrome c(6) along evolution, plants contain a modified cytochrome c(6), the so called cytochrome c(6A), whose function still remains unknown. In this article, we describe a second cytochrome c(6) (the so called cytochrome c(6)-like protein), which is found in some cyanobacteria but is phylogenetically more related to plant cytochrome c(6A) than to cyanobacterial cytochrome c(6). In this article, we conclude that the cytochrome c(6)-like protein is a putative electron donor to photosystem I, but does play a role different to that of cytochrome c(6) and plastocyanin as it cannot accept electrons from cytochrome f. The existence of this third electron donor to PSI could explain why some cyanobacteria are able to grow photoautotrophically in the absence of both cytochrome c(6) and plastocyanin. In any way, the Cyt c(6)-like protein from Nostoc sp. PCC 7119 would be potentially utilized for the biohydrogen production, using cell-free photosystem I catalytic nanoparticles.

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BackgroundModern biorefineries require enzymatic cocktails of improved efficiency to generate fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. Cellulolytic fungi, among other microorganisms, have demonstrated the highest potential in terms of enzymatic productivity, complexity and efficiency. On the other hand, under cellulolytic-inducing conditions, they often produce a considerable diversity of carbohydrate-active enzymes which allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions. However, industrial conditions are fixed and adjusted to the optimum of the whole cocktail, resulting in underperformance of individual enzymes.ResultsOne of these cellulolytic cocktails from Myceliophthora thermophila has been analyzed here by means of LC–MS/MS. Pure GH6 family members detected have been characterized, confirming previous studies, and added to whole cocktails to compare their contribution in the hydrolysis of industrial substrates. Finally, independent deletions of two GH6 family members, as an example of the enzymatic diversity management, led to the development of a strain producing a more efficient cellulolytic cocktail.ConclusionsThese data indicate that the deletion of noncontributive cellulases (here EG VI) can increase the cellulolytic efficiency of the cocktail, validating the management of cellulase diversity as a strategy to obtain improved fungal cellulolytic cocktails.

Little information is yet available on the alpha-amylases of cyanobacteria. Here, the presence of an alpha-amylase in the cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7119 is first demonstrated. A gene (amy1) encoding a cytoplasmic alpha-amylase (Amy1) protein has been identified, cloned, and overexpressed in Escherichia coli cells. The recombinant protein is a 56.7-kDa monomer, which has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by affinity chromatography. The substrate specificity and end product analyses confirm that it is a calcium-dependent alpha-amylase enzyme, which exhibits its maximum activity at 31 degrees C and at pH between 6.5 and 7.5. The Amy1 protein breaks down mainly starch, is also able to cleave glycogen and dextrin, and exhibits no activity against xylan or pullulan. So the enzyme cannot efficiently attack the maltodextrins with degrees of polymerization below that of maltooctaose. Maltotriose, maltose, and maltotetraose are the major products of the enzymatic reaction with starch as substrate. The enzyme shows a very high turnover number against soluble potato starch (3,420 +/- 270 s(-1)), as compared with other alpha-amylases reported in the literature. The high catalytic efficiency and relatively low optimum temperature of the Nostoc Amy1 protein make this previously unexplored group of cyanobacterial enzymes of great interest for further physiological studies and industrial applications.

Thermochemical pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis are the areas contributing most to the operational costs of second generation ethanol in lignocellulosic biorefineries. The improvement of lignocellulosic enzyme cocktails has been significant in the recent years. Although the needs for the reduction of the energy intensity and chemical consumption in the pretreatment step are well known, the reduction of the severity of the process strongly affects the enzymatic hydrolysis yield. To explore the formulation requirements of the well known cellulolytic cocktail from Myceliophthora thermophila on mild pretreated raw materials, this cocktail was tested on steam exploded corn stover without acid impregnation. The low hemicellulose yield and significant accumulation of xylobiose compared with the standard pretreated material obtained with dilute acid impregnation evidenced a clear limitation in the conversion of xylan to xylose. In order to complement the beta-xylosidase limitation, a selection of enzymes was expressed and tested in this fungus. A controlled expression of xylosidases from Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Fusarium oxysporum allowed recovering hemicellulose yields reached with standard acid treated material. The results underline the need of parallel development of the pretreatment process with the optimization of the formulation of the enzymatic cocktails.