The role of amorphogenesis in the enzymatic deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass
department or school: Forestry, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Gourlay, Keith Ian
issued: 2014-10-23T14:34:18Z
issued: 2014
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Agricultural and forestry-derived fibres can be converted into fuels and chemicals via a biorefinery. However, the densely-packed fibrillar architecture of lignocellulosic biomass makes the cellulose inherently inaccessible to the enzymes involved in this bioconversion process. This limits the efficiency of enzymatic deconstruction and necessitates relatively high enzyme/protein loadings, which decreases the economic viability of the overall process. It has previously been suggested that the rate-limiting step of cellulose hydrolysis is not the depolymerisation of the carbohydrate chains, but rather the rate at which the enzymes can gain access to the cellulose buried within the biomass. Recently, several proteins such as the Expansins, Swollenin and Loosenin have been shown to disrupt the cellulosic structure without directly depolymerizing the carbohydrates. This protein-induced “amorphogenesis” is thought to occur as a delamination, splitting, peeling, swelling, or decrystallizing of the biomass, thereby enhancing accessibility of the entrenched carbohydrates to the depolymerizing enzymes. However, a key challenge when studying these amorphogenesis-inducing proteins involves quantifying their disruptive effects. While depolymerizing enzymes can be readily quantified by measuring the amount of liberated soluble sugars, amorphogenesis-inducing proteins are thought to promote a variety of disruptive effects without releasing soluble products. As the undefined nature of the amorphogenesis end product makes quantification challenging, one of the initial goals of the work was to refine/develop techniques to better quantify amorphogenesis. Two distinct carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs), one of which preferentially binds to crystalline cellulose and the other to amorphous cellulose were used to track changes in cellulose accessibility and surface morphology. When various substrates were treated with the amorphogenesis-inducing protein, Swollenin, CBM adsorption reveale…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/50850
note: The Role of Amorphogenesis in the Enzymatic Deconstruction of Lignocellulosic Biomass by Keith Ian Gourlay MRes, The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, 2009 BSc, Queen’s University, 2008 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (FORESTRY) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) OCTOBER 2014 © Keith Ian Gourlay, 2014 ii Abstract Agricultural and forestry-derived fibres can be converted into fuels and chemicals via a biorefinery. However, the densely-packed fibrillar architecture of lignocellulosic biomass makes the cellulose inherently inaccessible to the enzymes involved in this bioconversion process. This limits the efficiency of enzymatic deconstruction and necessitates relatively high enzyme/protein loadings, which decreases the economic viability of the overall process. It has previously been suggested that the rate-limiting step of cellulose hydrolysis is not the depolymerisation of the carbohydrate chains, but rather the rate at which the enzymes can gain access to the cellulose buried within the biomass. Recently, several proteins such as the Expansins, Swollenin and Loosenin have been shown to disrupt the cellulosic structure without directly depolymerizing the carbohydrates. This protein-induced “amorphogenesis” is thought to occur as a delamination, splitting, peeling, swelling, or decrystallizing of the biomass, thereby enhancing accessibility of the entrenched carbohydrates to the depolymerizing enzymes. However, a key challenge when studying these amorphogenesis-inducing proteins involves quantifying their disruptive effects. While depolymerizing enzymes can be readily quantified by measuring the amount of liberated soluble sugars, amorphogenesis-inducing proteins are thought to promote a variety of disruptive effects without releasing soluble products. As the undefined nature of the amorphogenesis end product makes q…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2014-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0167619
language: eng
degree discipline: Forestry
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50850