Nanoscale dynamics of cellulose digestion by the cellobiohydrolase TrCel7A.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the mechanism by which cellulases from bacteria, fungi, and protozoans catalyze the digestion of lignocellulose is important for developing cost-effective strategies for bioethanol production. Cel7A from the fungus Trichoderma reesei is a model exoglucanase that degrades cellulose strands from their reducing ends by processively cleaving individual cellobiose units. Despite being one of the most studied cellulases, the binding and hydrolysis mechanisms of Cel7A are still debated. Here, we used single-molecule tracking to analyze the dynamics of 11,116 quantum dot-labeled TrCel7A molecules binding to and moving processively along immobilized cellulose. Individual enzyme molecules were localized with a spatial precision of a few nanometers and followed for hundreds of seconds.

SUBMITTER: Haviland ZK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390518 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature