Trichoderma reesei

About: Trichoderma reesei is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3832 publications have been published within this topic receiving 152877 citations. The topic is also known as: Trichoderma reesi.

Inhibition of the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by ethanol

Abstract: Ethanol inhibits the cellulase from Trichoderma reesi progressively and linearly up to 65 g/L. The inhibition of this magnitude presents a potential problem in the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, presently a norm of the process scheme in ethanol production from biomass.

Promotion of efficient Saccharification of crystalline cellulose by Aspergillus fumigatus Swo1.

Abstract: Cellulose is the primary polysaccharide of plant cell wall and the most abundant renewable biomass resource. Biological degradation of cellulose to soluble sugars has long been considered an alternative to the use of starch feedstocks for bioethanol production. Natural cellulose is an ordered, linear polymer of thousands of d-glucose residues linked by β-1,4-glucosidic bonds. Spontaneous crystallization of cellulose molecules due to chemical uniformity of glucose units and the high degree of hydrogen bonding in cellulose can often result in the formation of tightly packed microfibrils (8), which remain inaccessible to cellulolytic enzymes. No single enzyme is able to hydrolyze crystalline cellulose microfibrils completely. Synergistic effects of cellulase mixtures on crystalline cellulose degradation are well known (1, 7, 21). Nevertheless, cost-competitive technology for overcoming the recalcitrance of cellulosic biomass to enhance enzymatic saccharification is still a major impediment to the utilization of cellulosic materials in bioenergy generation. Expansins are plant cell wall proteins that cause cell wall enlargement by a unique loosening effect in an acid-induced manner (15, 20). They are also involved in many physiological processes where cell wall extension occurs, such as pollination, fruit ripening, organ abscission, and seed germination (13, 14). It has been proposed that plant expansins disrupt hydrogen bonding between cellulose microfibrils and other cell wall polysaccharides without hydrolytic activity, causing sliding of cellulose fibers or expansion of the cell wall (18, 19, 27). Swollenin, an expansin-like protein, was isolated and characterized from the cellulolytic filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. It has a bimodular structure consisting of a carbohydrate-binding module family 1 (CBM1) domain and an expansin-like domain connected by a linker region rich in serine and threonine. Swollenin exhibits disruption activity on cellulosic materials such as cotton and algal cell walls without releasing any detectable reducing sugars (23). However, effects of cellulose disruption activity on degradation/saccharification of crystalline cellulose have not yet been reported. Here, we report cloning a swollenin-like gene (designated Afswo1) from the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. We also report its production by Aspergillus oryzae and characterization of the purified AfSwo1.