British and American scientists jointly develop engineering enzymes for transforming plant wastes

The British American enzyme engineering team from Montana State University, National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of energy, University of California and University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom jointly published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAs) entitled "enabling micro syringol conversion through structure guided In the research paper of "protein engineering", an engineering enzyme with the activity of breaking down lignin was designed, and a new way of transforming plant waste into new materials and chemicals was developed Lignin is an important component of plant cell wall Its molecular weight is large, structure is complex, and it is very difficult to decompose Using this resource to make bio based products will effectively reduce the dependence on petrochemical resources, reduce carbon emissions, and is of great significance to environmental protection and energy development Scientists have been trying to find a bio technology to decompose lignin effectively This study found that a cytochrome P450 system can demethyl guaiacol (ligninoids derived from coniferol), but the demethylation ability of 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (ligninoids derived from sinapine alcohol) is weak Scientists further combined with crystallography knowledge to design P450 system which can demethyl 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, forming the blueprint of lignin enzyme design, showing important potential and plasticity in the biotransformation of aromatic methoxy derivatives At present, the research team has successfully designed a series of mutant enzymes to solve the most challenging conversion of lignin molecules, and will continue to develop biological tools to convert waste into high value-added bio based products