Effect of Bacillus circulans D1 thermostable xylanase on biobleaching of eucalyptus kraft pulp

The alkalophilic Bacillus circulans D1 was isolated from decayed wood. It produced high levels of extracellular cellulase-free xylanase. The enzyme was thermally stable up to 60°C, with an optimal hydrolysis temperature of 70°C. It was stable over a wide pH range (5.5-10.5), with an optimum pH at 5.5 and 80% of its activity at pH 9.0. This cellulase-free xylanase preparation was used to biobleach kraft pulp. Enzymatic treatment of kraft pulp decreased chlorine dioxide use by 23 and 37% to obtain the same kappa number (κ number) and brightness, respectively. Separation on Sephadex G-50 isolated three fractions with xylanase activity with distinct molecular weights.

Optimization of xylanase biosynthesis by Aspergillus japonicus isolated from a Caatinga area in the Brazilian state of Bahia

The objective of this research was to investigate the potential of xylanase production by Aspergillus japonicus and to determine the effects of cultivation conditions in the process, aiming toward optimization of enzyme production. The best temperature, as well as the best carbon source, for biomass production was determined through an automated turbidimetric method (Bioscreen-C). The enzyme activity of this fungus was separately evaluated in two solid substrates (wheat and soybean bran) and in Vogel medium, adding other carbon sources. Temperature effects, cultivation time, and spore concentrations were also tested. The best temperature for enzyme and biomass production was 25°C; however, the best carbon source for growth (determined by the Bioscreen C) did not turn out to be a good inducer of xylanase production. Maximum xylanase activity was achieved when the fungus was cultivated in wheat bran (without the addition of any other carbon source) using a spore concentration of 1 × 107 spores/mL (25°C, pH 5.0, 120 h). A. japonicus is a good xylanase producer under the conditions presented in these assays. © 2006 Academic Journals.

Fontes de carbono de baixo custo para a produção de xilanase termoestável por aspergillus niger

A strain of the flamentous fungus Aspergillus niger was isolated and shown to possess extracellular xylanolytic activity. These enzymes have biotechnological potential and can be employed in various industries. This fungus produced its highest xylanase activity in a medium made up of 0.1% CaCO3, 0.5% NaCl, 0.1% NH4Cl, 0.5% corn steep liquor and 1% carbon source, at pH 8.0. A low-cost hemicellulose residue (powdered corncob) proved to be an excellent inducer of the A. niger xylanolytic complex. Filtration of the crude culture medium with suspended kaolin was ideal for to clarify the extract and led to partial purifcation of the xylanolytic activity. The apparent molecular mass of the xylanase was about 32.3 kDa. Maximum enzyme activity occurred at pH 5.0 and 55-60oC. Apparent Km was 10.41 ± 0.282 mg/mL and Vmax was 3.32 ± 0.053 U/mg protein, with birchwood xylan as the substrate. Activation energy was 4.55 kcal/mol and half-life of the crude enzyme at 60oC was 30 minutes. Addition of 2% glucose to the culture medium supplemented with xylan repressed xylanase production, but in the presence of xylose the enzyme production was not affected.

Production, purification, and characterization of a major penicillium glabrum xylanase using brewer's spent grain as substrate

In recent decades, xylanases have been used in many processing industries. This study describes the xylanase production by Penicillium glabrum using brewer's spent grain as substrate. Additionally, this is the first work that reports the purification and characterization of a xylanase using this agroindustrial waste. Optimal production was obtained when P. glabrum was grown in liquid medium in pH 5.5, at 25 °C, under stationary condition for six days. The xylanase from P. glabrum was purified to homogeneity by a rapid and inexpensive procedure, using ammonium sulfate fractionation and molecular exclusion chromatography. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed one band with estimated molecular mass of 18.36 kDa. The optimum activity was observed at 60 °C, in pH 3.0. The enzyme was very stable at 50 °C, and high pH stability was verified from pH 2.5 to 5.0. The ion Mn2+ and the reducing agents β-mercaptoethanol and DTT enhanced xylanase activity, while the ions Hg2+, Zn2+, and Cu2+ as well as the detergent SDS were strong inhibitors of the enzyme. The use of brewer's spent grain as substrate for xylanase production cannot only add value and decrease the amount of this waste but also reduce the xylanase production cost. © 2013 Adriana Knob et al.

Development and Biotechnological Application of a Novel Endoxylanase Family GH10 Identified from Sugarcane Soil Metagenome

Metagenomics has been widely employed for discovery of new enzymes and pathways to conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals. In this context, the present study reports the isolation, recombinant expression, biochemical and structural characterization of a novel endoxylanase family GH10 (SCXyl) identified from sugarcane soil metagenome. The recombinant SCXyl was highly active against xylan from beechwood and showed optimal enzyme activity at pH 6,0 and 45°C. The crystal structure was solved at 2.75 Å resolution, revealing the classical (β/α)8-barrel fold with a conserved active-site pocket and an inherent flexibility of the Trp281-Arg291 loop that can adopt distinct conformational states depending on substrate binding. The capillary electrophoresis analysis of degradation products evidenced that the enzyme displays unusual capacity to degrade small xylooligosaccharides, such as xylotriose, which is consistent to the hydrophobic contacts at the +1 subsite and low-binding energies of subsites that are distant from the site of hydrolysis. The main reaction products from xylan polymers and phosphoric acid-pretreated sugarcane bagasse (PASB) were xylooligosaccharides, but, after a longer incubation time, xylobiose and xylose were also formed. Moreover, the use of SCXyl as pre-treatment step of PASB, prior to the addition of commercial cellulolytic cocktail, significantly enhanced the saccharification process. All these characteristics demonstrate the advantageous application of this enzyme in several biotechnological processes in food and feed industry and also in the enzymatic pretreatment of biomass for feedstock and ethanol production. © 2013 Alvarez et al.

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Biochemical Engineering Symposium

Contents"Effects of Swell-Shear Treatment on the Digestibility of Cellulosics", Dou-Houng Hwang, UMC "Application of Material and Energy Balance Regularities to Biomass Production from Cellulosic Substrates", Y.H. Lee, KSU "Immobilization of Aspergillus niger beta-Xylosidase", Gbekeloluwa B. Oguntimein, ISU "The Effect of the Major Structural Parameters of Cellulose on Enzymatic Hydrolysis", David H. Beardmore, Y.H. Lee, and L.T. Fan, KSU "Purification of a High Molecular Weight Hemicellulase", Ricardo A. Fournier, ISU "Aerobic Fermentation of Banana Pulp by Aspergillus Fumigatus", Stephen Lorbert, UMC "Purification and Properties of Two Very Small Xylanases", Chih-hen Kiang, ISU "Testing Theoretical Models for Cellulose Enzymatic Hydrolysis", Lin-Chang Chiang, UMC "Utilization of Material and Energy Balances in Hydrocarbon Fermentation", Alexis Ferrer, KSU "Purification of a Series of Closely Related Xylanases", Mary M. Frederick, ISU

Dinâmica do microbioma ruminal de ovinos (Ovis aries) e sua relação com a degradação de biomassa

Considerando a dieta como um fator modulador do microbioma ruminal, neste trabalho objetivou-se investigar o impacto do bagaço da cana-de-açúcar sobre a composição e funcionalidade das espécies microbianas residentes no rúmen de carneiros (Ovis aries). Foram utilizados seis animais machos fistulados de O. aries, dos quais três foram alimentados com uma dieta composta por 70% de volumoso e 30% de concentrado (tratamento controle) e outros três animais alimentados com uma dieta similar a anterior, mas com 14% do volumoso substituído por bagaço de cana-de-açúcar (tratamento bagaço). O conteúdo ruminal (líquido e fibra) foram amostrados quinzenalmente durante 60 dias. A partir dessas amostras foram acessadas a estrutura e a composição da comunidade microbiana pela extração de DNA total e amplificação das regiões V3 e V6-V7 do gene 16S rRNA bacteriano e a região intergênica fúngica (ITS2). Além disso, foram feitas análises metagenômicas e metatranscriptômicas de comunidade microbianas enriquecidas em fibra ruminal para identificar enzimas lignocelulolíticas expressas. As frações líquida e fibrosa do conteúdo ruminal de O. aries revelaram uma comunidade bacteriana dominada principalmente por Bacteroidetes e Firmicutes ao longo de todo período experimental. Dois gêneros, Prevotella e Ruminococcus representaram 20% e 4% da comunidade bacteriana ruminal, respectivamente. Para a comunidade fúngica o filo Neocallimastigomycota representou 91% das sequências e os principais gêneros deste filo foram Piromyces, Neocallimastix, Orpinomyces, Anaeromyces, Caecomyces e Cyllamyces aderidos a fibra ruminal. O gênero Caecomyces, foi significativamente mais abundante na fibra ruminal de animais que se alimentaram de bagaço de cana-de açúcar. Além disso, foi observado um aumento significativo na frequência de enzimas como, por exemplo, 1,4-α-glucano, α-galactosidase, endo 1,4-β-xilanase, β- xilosidase, xilose isomerase, celobiose fosforilase e α-N-arabinofuranosidase no tratamento com bagaço de cana-de-açúcar. Considerando que a recuperação de enzimas a partir de comunidades microbianas naturalmente selecionadas para a degradação de biomassa é uma estratégia promissora para superar a atual ineficiência da ação enzimática na produção industrial de biocombustíveis, os resultados deste trabalho representam a possibilidade de aumentar a capacidade de recuperação ou descoberta de enzimas a partir de ruminantes, ou ainda, a possibilidade de manipular a estrutura do microbioma do rúmen para usá-lo como fonte de inóculo enriquecido em processos industriais de degradação de biomassa.

Vitronectin modulates human mesenchymal stem cell response to insulin-like growth factor-I and transforming growth factor beta 1 in a serum-free environment

The use of animal sera for the culture of therapeutically important cells impedes the clinical use of the cells. We sought to characterize the functional response of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to specific proteins known to exist in bone tissue with a view to eliminating the requirement of animal sera. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), via IGF binding protein-3 or -5 (IGFBP-3 or -5) and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta(1)) are known to associate with the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein vitronectin (VN) and elicit functional responses in a range of cell types in vitro. We found that specific combinations of VN, IGFBP-3 or -5, and IGF-I or TGF-beta(1) could stimulate initial functional responses in hMSCs and that IGF-I or TGF-beta(1) induced hMSC aggregation, but VN concentration modulated this effect. We speculated that the aggregation effect may be due to endogenous protease activity, although we found that neither IGF-I nor TGF-beta(1) affected the functional expression of matrix metalloprotease-2 or -9, two common proteases expressed by hMSCs. In summary, combinations of the ECM and growth factors described herein may form the basis of defined cell culture media supplements, although the effect of endogenous protease expression on the function of such proteins requires investigation.

A functional screen identifies lateral transfer of beta-glucuronidase (gus) from bacteria to fungi

Lateral gene transfer (LGT) from prokaryotes to microbial eukaryotes is usually detected by chance through genome-sequencing projects. Here, we explore a different, hypothesis-driven approach. We show that the fitness advantage associated with the transferred gene, typically invoked only in retrospect, can be used to design a functional screen capable of identifying postulated LGT cases. We hypothesized that beta-glucuronidase (gus) genes may be prone to LGT from bacteria to fungi (thought to lack gus) because this would enable fungi to utilize glucuronides in vertebrate urine as a carbon source. Using an enrichment procedure based on a glucose-releasing glucuronide analog (cellobiouronic acid), we isolated two gus(+) ascomycete fungi from soils (Penicillium canescens and Scopulariopsis sp.). A phylogenetic analysis suggested that their gus genes, as well as the gus genes identified in genomic sequences of the ascomycetes Aspergillus nidulans and Gibberella zeae, had been introgressed laterally from high-GC gram(+) bacteria. Two such bacteria (Arthrobacter spp.), isolated together with the gus(+) fungi, appeared to be the descendants of a bacterial donor organism from which gus had been transferred to fungi. This scenario was independently supported by similar substrate affinities of the encoded beta-glucuronidases, the absence of introns from fungal gus genes, and the similarity between the signal peptide-encoding 5' extensions of some fungal gus genes and the Arthrobacter sequences upstream of gus. Differences in the sequences of the fungal 5' extensions suggested at least two separate introgression events after the divergence of the two main Euascomycete classes. We suggest that deposition of glucuronides on soils as a result of the colonization of land by vertebrates may have favored LGT of gus from bacteria to fungi in soils.