Researchers Engineer Enzymes to Gain Access to More Sugar in Plants

Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy have engineered enzymes that could generate biomass that can be efficiently converted into biofuels and other useful bioproducts. The paper is published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

The senior plant biologist at Brookhaven Laboratory, Chang-Jun Liu said, “The concept of biomass to biofuel seems simple, but it is technically very difficult to release the sugars.” In this research, plant biologists have engineered enzymes in grass plants called monolignol 4-O-methyltransferases (MOMTs) to reduce the grass' lignin content and gain access to sugars used to produce biofuels.

The study focused on analyzing rice plants engineered to express either of the two versions of the enzymes used in the study, MOMT4 and MOMT9. The results of the study show that the plants expressing MOMT4 generated up to 30% more sugar and 15% more in plants expressing MOMT9.

For more information, read the news release from Brookhaven National Laboratory.