Heterologous Expression of Family 10 Xylanases from Acidothermus cellulolyticus Enhances the Exoproteome of Caldicellulosiruptor bescii and Growth on Xylan Substrates

Daehwan Chung, Michael Himmel, Yannick Bomble, Sun-Ki Kim, Janet Westpheling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Background: The ability to deconstruct plant biomass without conventional pretreatment has made members of the genus Caldicellulosiruptor the target of investigation for the consolidated processing of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels and bioproducts. These Gram-positive bacteria are hyperthermophilic anaerobes and the most thermophilic cellulolytic organisms so far described. They use both C5 and C6 sugars simultaneously and have the ability to grow well on xylan, a major component of plant cell walls. This is an important advantage for their use to efficiently convert biomass at yields sufficient for an industrial process. For commodity chemicals, yield from substrate is perhaps the most important economic factor. In an attempt to improve even further the ability of C. bescii to use xylan, we introduced two xylanases from Acidothermus cellulolyticus. Acel-0180 includes tandem carbohydrate-binding modules (CBM2 and CBM3) located at the C-terminus, one of which, CBM2, is not present in C. bescii. Also, the sequences of Xyn10A and Acel-0180 have very little homology with the GH10 domains present in C. bescii. For these reasons, we selected these xylanases as potential candidates for synergistic interaction with those in the C. bescii exoproteome. Results: Heterologous expression of two xylanases from Acidothermus cellulolyticus in Caldicellulosiruptor bescii resulted in a modest, but significant increase in the activity of the exoproteome of C. bescii on xylan substrates. Even though the increase in extracellular activity was modest, the ability of C. bescii to grow on these substrates was dramatically improved suggesting that the xylan substrate/microbe interaction substantially increased deconstruction over the secreted free enzymes alone. Conclusions: We anticipate that the ability to efficiently use xylan, a major component of plant cell walls for conversion of plant biomass to products of interest, will allow the conversion of renewable, sustainable, and inexpensive plant feedstocks to products at high yields.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number176
Number of pages10
JournalBiotechnology for Biofuels
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Author(s).

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-2700-67046

Keywords

  • biomass deconstruction
  • caldicellulosiruptor
  • consolidated bioprocessing
  • xylanase

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