Formaldehyde stabilization facilitates lignin monomer production during biomass depolymerization

Abstract

bloom dynamics depend principally on the impact of consumers, a long-recognized control of phytoplankton abundance (30). Our findings for Synechococcus agree with those of Behrenfeld and Boss in so far as division rates (and, by inference, loss rates) are roughly 10 times the accumulation (net growth) rates. Our results differ, however, in that we find a significant positive correlation between division and accumulation rates over the course of the spring bloom (Fig. 4, B and C). This correlation was not detected by Behrenfeld and Boss, and perhaps should not be expected to be evident in the satellite-based observations of chlorophyll concentration that they analyzed (29). Those observations aggregate the entire phytoplankton community over a relatively large region of the ocean and mask individual responses of different taxa.Our observations, made at a much smaller spatial scale and with much finer taxonomic and temporal resolution than that of satellite data, reveal a connection between division rates and the bloom dynamics of Synechococcus. Consumers (including grazers, viruses, and parasites) certainly play a major role in shaping the bloom's trajectory, but the bloom is triggered by an environmental factor, the seasonal temperature rise, which leads to increases in the Synechococcus division rate (Fig. 3). The bloom persists until the division rate plateaus (Fig. 4B), at which point losses overtake division and the bloom begins to decline.We were able to diagnose the importance of temperature in regulating the dynamics of a ubiquitous marine primary producer, Synechococcus, by exploiting a 13-year time series comprising data on millions of individual cells and their traits. This allowed us to not only quantify the relationship between temperature and cell division in a natural population, but also to document how that relationship is the basis for a dramatic phenological shift affecting both Synechococcus and their consumers. It remains to be seen whether this ecological coupling will hold as warming trends continue in the decades to come.

Silencing CHALCONE SYNTHASE in Maize Impedes the Incorporation of Tricin into Lignin and Increases Lignin Content

“…The thermal conversion of lignocellulosics to renewable gas and bio-oils has been heavily researched, and the benefits for industrial implementation have become clear (Yaman, 2004;Saidi et al, 2014). Feedstocks with high lignin levels might be a promising source of aromatic/phenolic compounds to produce bio-based products from lignin, as proposed in a lignin-first biorefinery approach ( Van den Bosch et al, 2015;Rinaldi et al, 2016) and as demonstrated recently with high-level monomer production via hydrogenolysis (Shuai et al, 2016).…”

Lignocellulose pretreatment in a fungus-cultivating termite

“…By using 2D-NMR in conjunction with methoxyl group analysis, we are able to quantitatively determine where and to what degree bond cleavage is occurring in the wood cell wall, and understand the functional roles of the interactions between the multiple partners in the lignocellulosic pretreatment by fungus-cultivating termites. In fact, 2D-NMR is the most diagnostic approach to ascertain the presence and relative levels of the various units within native lignin (35). We elucidated the relative distributions of the various lignin subunits, characterized by their specific interunit linkages, as well as the polysaccharide profile (Figs.…”

Complete lignocellulose conversion with integrated catalyst recycling yielding valuable aromatics and fuels

“…Moreover, under these processing conditions the lignin component is structurally modified, rendering its further catalytic valorization very challenging [4][5][6][7] . This remains true despite impressive advances in the selective conversion of lignin model compounds 8,9 and depolymerization of organosolv lignin [10][11][12][13][14] . Recently, elegant research has focused on lignocellulose fractionation in the presence of a catalyst 4,[15][16][17] .…”