Synthetic biology advances towards a bio-based society in the era of artificial intelligence.

Synthetic biology is a rapidly emerging field with broad underlying applications in health, industry, agriculture, or environment, enabling sustainable solutions for unmet needs of modern society. With the very recent addition of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches, this field is now growing at a rate that can help reach the envisioned goals of bio-based society within the next few decades. Integrating AI with plant-based technologies, such as protein engineering, phytochemicals production, plant system engineering, or microbiome engineering, potentially disruptive applications have already been reported. These include enzymatic synthesis of new-to-nature molecules, bioelectricity generation, or biomass applications as construction material. Thus, in the not-so-distant future, synthetic biologists will help attain the overarching goal of a sustainable yet efficient production system for every aspect of society.

Approaches for Producing Fungal Cellulases Through Submerged Fermentation.

Fungal cellulases are the most sought-after biological molecules produced from microbial sources in the last four decades. Owing to their emerging applications in the bioenergy industry for hydrolyzing cellulose, for which they are the most abundant source on this planet, research trends are shifting heavily toward adapting to submerged fermentation. However, filamentous fungal species, which are efficient cellulase producers, are well-adapted to low-moisture solid support as the substrate, such as in nature. Therefore, various fermentation strategies are currently being investigated to adapt them to submerged fermentation for large and high-quality production of cellulases. Emerging research trends, such as the use of inexpensive feedstocks, nutrient and/or culture optimization, innovative bioreactor designs, microparticle-assisted fungal growth, and innovative genetic engineering approaches, are some of the recent efforts by researchers to exploit the full potential of these biological molecules. This review discusses some of these strategies and their success rates in various research conditions. In addition, specific focus was provided to both increasing the market value of cellulases and the innovative strategies required to enhance their production on an industrial scale.

Salt and nitrogen amendment and optimization for cellulase and xylanase production using dilute acid hydrolysate of distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as the feedstock.

Distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is a by-product of dry-mill corn ethanol production comprising a high nutritional value due to residual fiber, protein, and lipid contents. The fiber content of DDGS is high enough to be considered a valuable source for the production of hydrolytic enzymes, such as cellulase and xylanases, which can be used for hydrolysis of lignocellulosic feedstock during ethanol production. The DDGS-based medium prepared after acid hydrolysis provides adequate sugars for enzyme production, while additional macronutrients, such as salts and nitrogen sources, can enhance the enzyme production. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of salts (KH2PO4, CaCl2·2H2O, MgSO4·7H2O, FeSO4·7H2O, CoCl2·6H2O, and MnSO4·H2O), peptone, and yeast extract on enzyme secretion by four different Aspergillus niger strains and to optimize the nitrogen source for maximum enzyme production. Yeast extract improved the cellulase production (0.38 IU/ml) for A. niger (NRRL 1956) as compared to peptone (0.29 IU/ml). However, maximum cellulase productions of 0.42 IU/ml and 0.45 IU/ml were obtained by A. niger (NRRL 330) and A. niger (NRRL 567), respectively, in presence of ammonium sulfate. The optimized nitrogen amounts resulted in a significant increase in the cellulase production from 0.174 to 0.63 IU/ml on day 9 of the fermentation with A. niger (NRRL 330). The composite model improved both cellulase and xylanase production. In conclusion, the optimization of all three nitrogen sources improved both cellulase and xylanase production in the DDGS-based media.

A Review on the Utilization of Lignin as a Fermentation Substrate to Produce Lignin-Modifying Enzymes and Other Value-Added Products.

The lignocellulosic biomass is comprised of three major components: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Among these three, cellulose and hemicellulose were already used for the generation of simple sugars and subsequent value-added products. However, lignin is the least applied material in this regard because of its complex and highly variable nature. Regardless, lignin is the most abundant material, and it can be used to produce value-added products such as lignin-modifying enzymes (LMEs), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), microbial lipids, vanillin, muconic acid, and many others. This review explores the potential of lignin as the microbial substrate to produce such products. A special focus was given to the different types of lignin and how each one can be used in different microbial and biochemical pathways to produce intermediate products, which can then be used as the value-added products or base to make other products. This review paper will summarize the effectiveness of lignin as a microbial substrate to produce value-added products through microbial fermentations. First, basic structures of lignin along with its types and chemistry are discussed. The subsequent sections highlight LMEs and how such enzymes can enhance the value of lignin by microbial degradation. A major focus was also given to the value-added products that can be produced from lignin.

Distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and its potential as fermentation feedstock.

Distillers' dried grain with solubles (DDGS) is a byproduct of bioethanol fermentation, which uses the dry milling technology for starch-rich grains such as corn, wheat, and barley. The current interest in bioethanol is increasing due to the need for renewable liquid fuels specifically in the transportation sector. Since DDGS is rich in crude protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, it is currently used as aquaculture, livestock, and poultry feeds. In recent years, DDGS has been used as feedstock in the production of value-added products via microbial fermentation. Numerous studies reported the production organic acids, methane, biohydrogen, and hydrolytic enzymes using DDGS. While DDGS contains remarkable amounts of macronutrients, pre-treatment of DDGS is required for release of the fermentable sugars. The pre-treatment methods such as chemical, physical, and biological origin are either solely used or combined to obtain maximal yields for different applications. Therefore, this review summarizes some of the most prominent pre-treatment processes generating high fermentable sugar yields for the productions of value-added products in the last 5 years. A special focus has been given to the effect of the variability of DDGS on the final product. Integration of hydrolytic enzyme production with the traditional bioethanol production facilities has been discussed for further improvement of bioethanol, methane, and biohydrogen using DDGS as fermentation feedstock.Key points• Distillers' dried grain with solubles (DDGS) has high nutritional value, but the nutritional profile is variable.• DDGS can be used for microbial fermentation feedstock to produce value-added products.• A review of the microbial products using DDGS is given for the last 5 years.• DDGS has the potential to replace expensive feedstocks of value-added products.

Optimization of dilute sulfuric acid, aqueous ammonia, and steam explosion as the pretreatments steps for distillers' dried grains with solubles as a potential fermentation feedstock.

Distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is the by-product of bioethanol production from starch-rich grains through dry-mill fermentation. In this study, dilute sulfuric acid hydrolysis, aqueous ammonia, and steam explosion as the pre-treatment methods were optimized. The central composite response surface methodology (RSM) design was used for optimization of dilute acid pretreatment, aqueous ammonia pretreatment. The steam explosion trials were evaluated. The results show that the dilute acid pretreatment at 121 °C is the most effective way of obtaining simple fermentable sugars (0.382 g/g DDGS). The levels of furfural and HMF was also 5.2 mg/g DDGS) and 1.6 mg/g DDGS, respectively, in the dilute sulfuric acid pretreated DDGS. On the other hand, maximum sugar yield for ammonia pretreatment was 0.129 g/g DDGS and 0.055 g/g DDGS for the steam pretreatment, while no significant amounts of furfural and HMF were observed for these two pretreatment methods.