Expression of a fungal laccase fused with a bacterial cellulose-binding module improves the enzymatic saccharification efficiency of lignocellulose biomass in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Delignification is effective for improving the saccharification efficiency of lignocellulosic biomass materials. We previously identified that the expression of a fungal laccase (Lac) fused with a bacterial cellulose-binding module domain (CBD) improved the enzymatic saccharification efficiency of rice plants. In this work, to evaluate the ability of the Lac-CBD fused chimeric enzyme to improve saccharification efficiency in a dicot plant, we introduced the chimeric gene into a dicot model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Transgenic plants expressing the Lac-CBD chimeric gene showed normal morphology and growth, and showed a significant increase of enzymatic saccharification efficiency compared to control plants. The transgenic plants with the largest improvement of enzymatic saccharification efficiency also showed an increase of crystalline cellulose in their cell wall fractions. These results indicated that expression of the Lac-CBD chimeric protein in dicotyledonous plants improved the enzymatic saccharification of plant biomass by increasing the crystallinity of cellulose in the cell wall.

Transcriptional enhancement of a bacterial <i>choline oxidase A</i> gene by an <i>HSP</i> terminator improves the glycine betaine production and salinity stress tolerance of <i>Eucalyptus camaldulensis</i> trees

“…Total RNA was extracted from young leaves with an RNeasy (Iiyoshi et al 2017). The real-time PCR reaction occurred with the following step-cycle program: preincubation at 95°C for 1 min, follow by 40 cycles of denaturing at 95°C for 15 s, annealing at 60°C for 10 s, and extension at 72°C for 30 s each cycle.…”