A Biological Nanomachine at Work: Watching the Cellulosome Degrade Crystalline Cellulose.

ABSTRACT: The cellulosome is a supramolecular multienzymatic protein complex that functions as a biological nanomachine of cellulosic biomass degradation. How the megadalton-size cellulosome adapts to a solid substrate is central to its mechanism of action and is also key for its efficient use in bioconversion applications. We report time-lapse visualization of crystalline cellulose degradation by individual cellulosomes from Clostridium thermocellum by atomic force microscopy. Upon binding to cellulose, the cellulosomes switch to elongated, even filamentous shapes and morph these dynamically at below 1 min time scale according to requirements of the substrate surface under attack. Compared with noncomplexed cellulases that peel off material while sliding along crystalline cellulose surfaces, the ce

SUBMITTER: Eibinger M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7256933 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature