Issue 13/2018 - Breakthrough in cellulose degradation mechanism

Recently, Professor Li Duochuan's research group of Shandong Agricultural University discovered a new mechanism of oxidative degradation of cellulose in the study, and identified for the first time that polysaccharide monooxygenase can oxidatively degrade carbon 6 in the molecular structure of cellulose, which provides a new way
to improve cellulose utilization.

Cellulose can be degraded to glucose by cellulase and used as a bionew energy fuel, but lignocellulose in straw, wood and other raw materials is difficult to be degraded
by cellulase due to its tight intermolecular binding.
In recent years, scholars have shown that polysaccharide monooxygenase can act on the carbon 1 and carbon 4 positions of lignocellulose, thereby oxidizing and degrading lignocellulose
.
Li Duochuan's research group isolated a polysaccharide monooxygenase from Thermophilus and named it CtPMO1.

Using its own bromine oxidation-flight mass spectrometry, the research group efficiently identified the products of oxidative degradation of lignocellulose by the polyoxygenase of Tricholophilus chinophilus, and proved that it not only oxidized the carbon 1 and carbon 4 positions of cellulose, but also oxidized carbon 6 positions
.
Through further research, they proved that three aromatic amino acid residues at the binding of the polyoxygenase of Trichophilus thermophilus polysaccharide to cellulose were involved in the oxidative degradation process
.
Based on this research result, scientists can study an efficient degradation method for carbon 6 to improve the utilization efficiency
of lignocellulose.