Abstract
BackgroundThe description of new hydrolytic enzymes is an important step in the development of techniques which use lignocellulosic materials as a starting point for fuel production. Sugarcane bagasse, which is subjected to pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation for the production of ethanol in several test refineries, is the most promising source of raw material for the production of second generation renewable fuels in Brazil. One problem when screening hydrolytic activities is that the activity against commercial substrates, such as carboxymethylcellulose, does not always correspond to the activity against the natural lignocellulosic material. Besides that, the macroscopic characteristics of the raw material, such as insolubility and heterogeneity, hinder its use for high throughput screenings.ResultsIn this paper, we present the preparation of a colloidal suspension of particles obtained from sugarcane bagasse, with minimal chemical change in the lignocellulosic material, and demonstrate its use for high throughput assays of hydrolases using Brazilian termites as the screened organisms.ConclusionsImportant differences between the use of the natural substrate and commercial cellulase substrates, such as carboxymethylcellulose or crystalline cellulose, were observed. This suggests that wood feeding termites, in contrast to litter feeding termites, might not be the best source for enzymes that degrade sugarcane biomass.
Highlights
The description of new hydrolytic enzymes is an important step in the development of techniques which use lignocellulosic materials as a starting point for fuel production
We present a new substrate, colloidal sugar cane bagasse (CSCB), and asses it’s suitability for screening hydrolases and for the characterization of enzymes from Brazilian termites; these enzymes have not yet been studied
In this work we present the results obtained from screening invertebrate enzymes, focusing on Brazilian termites
Summary
The description of new hydrolytic enzymes is an important step in the development of techniques which use lignocellulosic materials as a starting point for fuel production. Sugarcane bagasse, which is subjected to pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation for the production of ethanol in several test refineries, is the most promising source of raw material for the production of second generation renewable fuels in Brazil. The use of a natural source of biomass for high throughput screenings is hindered by the presence of gross and insoluble particles. The utilization of a milled particle slurry for enzymatic assays with corn stover has already been proposed [7] In this case the suspension was obtained after extensive physicochemical treatments of the raw material, which makes its preparation expensive and could have altered the biochemical properties of the substrate, and its reactivity to certain enzymes
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