Engineering the cell wall by reducing de-methyl-esterified homogalacturonan improves saccharification of plant tissues for bioconversion.

ABSTRACT: Plant cell walls represent an abundant, renewable source of biofuel and other useful products. The major bottleneck for the industrial scale-up of their conversion to simple sugars (saccharification), to be subsequently converted by microorganisms into ethanol or other products, is their recalcitrance to enzymatic saccharification. We investigated whether the structure of pectin that embeds the cellulose-hemicellulose network affects the exposure of cellulose to enzymes and consequently the process of saccharification. Reduction of de-methyl-esterified homogalacturonan (HGA) in Arabidopsis plants through the expression of a fungal polygalacturonase (PG) or an inhibitor of pectin methylesterase (PMEI) increased the efficiency of enzymatic saccharification. The improved enzymatic saccharific

SUBMITTER: Lionetti V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2818903 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature