Multifunctional fully biobased aerogels for water remediation: Applications for dye and heavy metal adsorption and oil/water separation.

Water ecosystem contamination from industrial pollutants is an emerging threat to both humans and native species, making it a point of global concern. In this work, fully biobased aerogels (FBAs) were developed by using low-cost cellulose filament (CF), chitosan (CS), citric acid (CA), and a simple and scalable approach, for water remediation applications. The FBAs displayed superior mechanical properties (up to ∼65 kPa m3 kg-1 specific Young's modulus and ∼111 kJ/m3 energy absorption) due to CA acting as a covalent crosslinker in addition to the natural hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions between CF and CS. The addition of CS and CA increased the variety of functional groups (carboxylic acid, hydroxyl and amines) on the materials' surface, resulting in super-high dye and heavy metal adsorption capacities (619 mg/g and 206 mg/g for methylene blue and copper, respectively). Further modification of FBAs with a simple approach using methyltrimethoxysilane endowed aerogel oleophilic and hydrophobic properties. The developed FBAs showed a fast performance in water and oil/organic solvents separation with more than 96% efficiency. Besides, the FBA sorbents could be regenerated and reused for multiple cycles without any significant impact on their performance. Moreover, thanks to the presence of amine groups by addition of CS, FBAs also displayed antibacterial properties by preventing the growth of Escherichia coli on their surface. This work demonstrates the preparation of FBAs from abundant, sustainable, and inexpensive natural resources for applications in wastewater purification.

Biomass-water interactions correlate to recalcitrance and are intensified by pretreatment: An investigation of water constraint and retention in pretreated spruce using low field NMR and water retention value techniques.

The underlying mechanisms of the recalcitrance of biomass to enzymatic deconstruction are still not fully understood, and this hampers the development of biomass based fuels and chemicals. With water being necessary for most biological processes, it is suggested that interactions between water and biomass may be key to understanding and controlling biomass recalcitrance. This study investigates the correlation between biomass recalcitrance and the constraint and retention of water by the biomass, using SO2 pretreated spruce, a common feedstock for lignocellulosic biofuel production, as a substrate to evaluate this relationship. The water retention value (WRV) of the pretreated materials was measured, and water constraint was assessed using time domain Low Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LFNMR) relaxometry. WRV increased with pretreatment severity, correlating to reduced recalcitrance, as measured by hydrolysis of cellulose using commercial enzyme preparations. Water constraint increased with pretreatment severity, suggesting that a higher level of biomass-water interaction is indicative of reduced recalcitrance in pretreated materials. Both WRV and water constraint increased significantly with reductions in particle size when pretreated materials were further milled, suggesting that particle size plays an important role in biomass water interactions. It is suggested that WRV may be a simple and effective method for measuring and comparing biomass recalcitrance. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:146-153, 2017.

The addition of accessory enzymes enhances the hydrolytic performance of cellulase enzymes at high solid loadings.

The pretreatment process used and the nature of the biomass feedstock will influence the role that accessory enzymes can play in synergistically interacting with cellulases to effectively deconstruct the substrate. The work reported here assessed the possible boosting effects of the xylanase and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (AA9, formerly known as GH61) on the hydrolytic potential of cellulase enzyme mixtures during hydrolysis of steam pretreated poplar and corn stover at high (10-20% w/v) substrate concentrations. A higher proportion of xylanase was required when the substrate had a relatively high xylan content and at high substrate concentrations. In contrast, a relatively small amount of AA9 (about 2 mg/g cellulose) was enough, regardless of the nature or concentration of the substrate. The overall protein loading required to achieve effective hydrolysis of high concentrations of pretreated biomass substrates could be substantially reduced by optimizing the ratio of enzymes in the "cellulase" mixture.

The accessible cellulose surface influences cellulase synergism during the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic substrates.

Effective enzymatic hydrolysis of insoluble cellulose requires the synergistic action of a suite of cellulase components. Most previous studies have only assessed cellulase synergism on model cellulosic substrates. When the actions of individual and combinations of cellulases (Cel7A, Cel6A, Cel7B, Cel5A) were assessed on various pretreated lignocellulosic substrates, Cel7A was shown to be the major contributor to overall cellulose hydrolysis, with the other enzymes synergistically enhancing its hydrolytic efficiency, at least partially, by facilitating Cel7A desorption (assessed by a double-sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). When the influences of various substrate physicochemical characteristics on the effectiveness of enzyme synergism were assessed, a strong relationship was observed between cellulose accessibility (as determined by the cellulose binding module technique) and the degree of synergism, with greater synergy observed on the more disorganized/accessible cellulose surface.

The use of carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs) to monitor changes in fragmentation and cellulose fiber surface morphology during cellulase- and Swollenin-induced deconstruction of lignocellulosic substrates.

Although the actions of many of the hydrolytic enzymes involved in cellulose hydrolysis are relatively well understood, the contributions that amorphogenesis-inducing proteins might contribute to cellulose deconstruction are still relatively undefined. Earlier work has shown that disruptive proteins, such as the non-hydrolytic non-oxidative protein Swollenin, can open up and disaggregate the less-ordered regions of lignocellulosic substrates. Within the cellulosic fraction, relatively disordered, amorphous regions known as dislocations are known to occur along the length of the fibers. It was postulated that Swollenin might act synergistically with hydrolytic enzymes to initiate biomass deconstruction within these dislocation regions. Carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs) that preferentially bind to cellulosic substructures were fluorescently labeled. They were imaged, using confocal microscopy, to assess the distribution of crystalline and amorphous cellulose at the fiber surface, as well as to track changes in surface morphology over the course of enzymatic hydrolysis and fiber fragmentation. Swollenin was shown to promote targeted disruption of the cellulosic structure at fiber dislocations.

The enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated pulp fibers predominantly involves "peeling/erosion" modes of action.

BACKGROUND: There is still considerable debate regarding the actual mechanism by which a "cellulase mixture" deconstructs cellulosic materials, with accessibility to the substrate at the microscopic level being one of the major restrictions that limits fast, complete cellulose hydrolysis. In the work reported here we tried to determine the predominant mode of action, at the fiber level, of how a cellulase mixture deconstructs pretreated softwood and hardwood pulp fibers. Quantitative changes in the pulp fibers derived from different pretreated biomass substrates were monitored throughout the course of enzymatic hydrolysis to see if the dominant mechanisms involved either the fragmentation/cutting of longer fibers to shorter fibers or their "peeling/delamination/erosion," or if both cutting and peeling mechanisms occurred simultaneously. RESULTS: Regardless of the source of biomass, the type of pretreatment and the chemical composition of the substrate, under typical hydrolysis conditions (50°C, pH 4.8, mixing) longer pulp fibers (fiber length >200 µm) were rapidly broken down until a relatively constant fiber length of 130 to 160 µm was reached. In contrast, shorter fibers with an initial average fiber length of 130 to 160 µm showed no significant change in length despite their substantial hydrolysis. The fragmentation/cutting mode of deconstruction was only observed on longer fibers at early stages of hydrolysis. Although the fiber fragmentation mode of deconstruction was not greatly influenced by enzyme loading, it was significantly inhibited by glucose and was mainly observed during initial mixing of the enzyme and substrate. In contrast, significant changes in the fiber width occurred throughout the course of hydrolysis for all of the substrates, suggesting that fiber width may limit the rate and extent of cellulose hydrolysis. CONCLUSION: It appears that, at the fiber level, pretreated pulp fibers are hydrolyzed through a two-step mode of action involving an initial rapid fragmentation followed by simultaneous swelling and peeling/erosion of the fragmented fibers. This latter mechanism is the predominant mode of action involved in effectively hydrolyzing the cellulose present in pretreated wood substrates.

Swollenin aids in the amorphogenesis step during the enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated biomass.

A key limitation in the overall hydrolysis process is the restricted access that the hydrolytic enzymes have due to the macro-and-micro structure of cellulose and its association with hemicellulose and lignin. Previous work has shown that several non-hydrolytic proteins can disrupt cellulose structure and boost the activity of hydrolytic enzymes when purer forms of cellulose are used. In the work reported here, Swollenin primarily disrupted the hemicellulosic fraction of pretreated corn stover, resulting in the solubilisation of monomeric and oligomeric sugars. Although Swollenin showed little synergism when combined with the cellulase monocomponents exoglucanase (CEL7A) and endoglucanase (CEL5A), it showed pronounced synergism with xylanase monocomponents Xylanase GH10 and Xylanase GH11, resulting in the release of significantly more xylose (>300%). It appears that Swollenin plays a role in amorphogenesis and that its primary action is enhancing access to the hemicellulose fraction that limits or masks accessibility to the cellulose component of lignocellulosic substrates.

Use of substructure-specific carbohydrate binding modules to track changes in cellulose accessibility and surface morphology during the amorphogenesis step of enzymatic hydrolysis.

BACKGROUND: Cellulose amorphogenesis, described as the non-hydrolytic "opening up" or disruption of a cellulosic substrate, is becoming increasingly recognized as one of the key steps in the enzymatic deconstruction of cellulosic biomass when used as a feedstock for fuels and chemicals production. Although this process is thought to play a major role in facilitating hydrolysis, the lack of quantitative techniques capable of accurately describing the molecular-level changes occurring in the substrate during amorphogenesis has hindered our understanding of this process. RESULTS: In this work, techniques for measuring changes in cellulose accessibility are reviewed and a new quantitative assay method is described. Carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs) with specific affinities for crystalline (CBM2a) or amorphous (CBM44) cellulose were used to track specific changes in the surface morphology of cotton fibres during amorphogenesis. The extents of phosphoric acid-induced and Swollenin-induced changes to cellulose accessibility were successfully quantified using this technique. CONCLUSIONS: The adsorption of substructure-specific CBMs can be used to accurately quantify the extent of changes to cellulose accessibility induced by non-hydrolytic disruptive proteins. The technique provided a quick, accurate and quantitative measure of the accessibility of cellulosic substrates. Expanding the range of CBMs used for adsorption studies to include those specific for such compounds as xylan or mannan should also allow for the accurate quantitative tracking of the accessibility of these and other polymers within the lignocellulosic biomass matrix.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A can result from accelerated autoproteolytic inactivation of calpain 3.

Loss-of-function mutations in calpain 3 have been shown to cause limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A (LGMD2A), an autosomal recessive disorder that results in gradual wasting of the muscles of the hip and shoulder areas. Due to the inherent instability of calpain 3, recombinant expression of the full-length enzyme has not been possible, making in vitro analysis of specific LGMD2A-causing mutations difficult. However, because calpain 3 is highly similar in amino acid sequence to calpain 2, the recently solved crystal structure of full-length, Ca2+-bound, calpastatin-inhibited rat calpain 2 has allowed us to model calpain 3 as a Ca2+-bound homodimer. The model revealed three distinct areas of the enzyme that undergo a large conformational change upon Ca2+ binding. Located in these areas are several residues that undergo mutation to cause LGMD2A. We investigated the in vitro effects of six of these mutations by making the corresponding mutations in rat calpain 2. All six mutations examined in this study resulted in a decrease in enzyme activity. All but one of the mutations caused an increased rate of autoproteolytic degradation of the enzyme as witnessed by SDS-PAGE, indicating the decrease in enzyme activity is caused, at least in part, by an increase in the rate of autoproteolytic degradation. The putative in vivo effects of these mutations on calpain 3 activity are discussed with respect to their ability to cause LGMD2A.