A functional motility switch

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 43 KB
• Volume: 100
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/bit.22026

✦ Synopsis

A daunting challenge to the efficient enzymatic digestion of cellulose in biomass is the structural complexity of the substrate. Cellulose is present in tight bundles surrounded by a mesh of other carbohydrate chains and is therefore inaccessible to cellulases. Moser and co-workers investigated the possible roles of two carbohydrate-binding proteins that were co-induced with secreted cellulases of Thermobifida fusca on cellulose. The two proteins, E7 and E8, were observed to bind well to cellulose and chitin. Although these proteins lack catalytic domains, filter paper assays showed a significant increase in the initial rates of reaction if either E7 or E8 was added to the reaction mix. Clearly, these proteins play a role in biomass digestion perhaps by opening up the carbohydrate mesh.