Abstract
Commercial scale production of biofuels from lignocellulosic feed stocks has been hampered by the resistance of plant cell walls to enzymatic conversion, primarily owing to lignin. This study investigated whether DypB, the lignin-degrading peroxidase from Rodococcus jostii, depolymerizes lignin and reduces recalcitrance in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana). The protein was targeted to the cytosol or the ER using ER-targeting and retention signal peptides. For each construct, five independent transgenic lines were characterized phenotypically and genotypically. Our findings reveal that expression of DypB in the cytosol and ER does not affect plant development. ER-targeting increased protein accumulation, and extracts from transgenic leaves showed higher activity on classic peroxidase substrates than the control. Intriguingly, in situ DypB activation and subsequent saccharification released nearly 200% more fermentable sugars from transgenic lines than controls, which were not explained by variation in initial structural and non-structural carbohydrates and lignin content. Pyrolysis-GC-MS analysis showed more reduction in the level of lignin associated pyrolysates in the transgenic lines than the control primarily when the enzyme is activated prior to pyrolysis, consistent with increased lignin degradation and improved saccharification. The findings reveal for the first time that accumulation and in situ activation of a peroxidase improves biomass digestibility.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-6-2017
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16909-x
Funding Information
This research was sponsored by EPSCoR-NSF (#6635) and USDA NIFA AFRI grant #2012-68005-19703. Other projects in the laboratory and AL-O are supported by USDA-NIFA CBGs (#2011-38821-30974 and 2014-38821-22417).
Related Content
All relevant data are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Supplementary information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16909-x.Repository Citation
Ligaba-Osena, Ayalew; Hankoua, Bertrand; DiMarco, Kay; Pace, Robert; Crocker, Mark; McAtee, Jesse; Nagachar, Nivedita; Tien, Ming; and Richard, Tom L., "Reducing Biomass Recalcitrance by Heterologous Expression of a Bacterial Peroxidase in Tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana)" (2017). Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications. 18.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/caer_facpub/18
Supplementary Tables and Figures
Included in
Bacteria Commons, Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering Commons, Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering Commons, Plant Sciences Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Scientific Reports, v. 7, article no. 17104, p. 1-18.
© The Author(s) 2017
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