A New Family of Enzymes for Hard-to-Digest Biomass

Researchers from the University of York (United Kingdom) and Aix-Marseille Université (France) have discovered a new family of enzymes capable of degrading hard-to-digest biomass into its constituent sugars.

Finding a way to break down hard-to-digest or recalcitrant materials, such as plant stems, wood chips, cardboard waste or insect/crustacean shells, into their constituent sugars to allow them to be fermented into bioethanol is regarded as the 'Holy Grail' of biofuel research. Fuels made from these lignocellulosic sources are known as second generation biofuels.

The research team reported in the journal Nature Chemical Biology the detailed biochemical characterization of a newly discovered family of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) enzyme from Aspergillus oryzae, a fungus widely used in fermentation industries. LPMOs are a recently discovered class of enzymes capable of oxidizing recalcitrant polysaccharides. The recently reported enzyme belongs to the third LPMO family of enzymes discovered.

The recent discovery is considered as a significant step in the development of second generation biofuels.