Novel Enzymes for the degradation of Lignin-Carbohydrate complexes

Conference poster, 2010

In pulp and paper production, the delignification process damages the wood polymers irreversibly. A milder process based on enzymatic treatment could maintain various polymer properties that could be utilised for creating novel materials from the wood. One class of chemical bonds that needs to be hydrolysed in such a process are the hemicellulose-lignin bonds. These are thought to be of a heterologous mix of bonds consisting mostly of ether and ester bonds between hemicellulose sugars and the phenylpropane units of lignin (Jeffries 1990). Finding enzymes capable of hydrolysing these bonds are therefore of industrial relevance. In addition, hemicellulose-debranching enzymes that allows removal of lignin-substituted sidechains could be used to the same effect, why finding novel enzymes of this type is equally relevant. The present work outlines a process with which such novel enzymes for wood hydrolysis can be discovered by systematic screening of filamentous fungi under varying growth conditions.