Bioprospecting of functional cellulases from metagenome for second generation biofuel production: a review

Abstract

Second generation biofuel production has been appeared as a sustainable and alternative energy option. The ultimate aim is the development of an industrially feasible and economic conversion process of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel molecules. Since, cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer and also represented as the photosynthetically fixed form of carbon, the efficient hydrolysis of cellulose is the most important step towards the development of a sustainable biofuel production process. The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by suites of hydrolytic enzymes underlines the importance of cellulase enzyme system in whole hydrolysis process. However, the selection of the suitable cellulolytic enzymes with enhanced activities remains a challenge for the biorefinery industry to obtain efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass. The present review focuses on deciphering the novel and effective cellulases from different environmental niches by unculturable metagenomic approaches. Furthermore, a comprehensive functional aspect of cellulases is also presented and evaluated by assessing the structural and catalytic properties as well as sequence identities and expression patterns. This review summarizes the recent development in metagenomics based approaches for identifying and exploring novel cellulases which open new avenues for their successful application in biorefineries.

Keywords:

• Lignocellulosic biomass
• second generation biofuel
• metagenomics
• cellulase
• glycosyl hydrolase

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to National Fund for Basic, Strategic and Frontier Application Research in Agriculture (ICAR-NFBSFARA) for funding the research activities for biofuel project (NFBSFARA/AE-2006/2010-11). We also acknowledge the support from SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST Fast Track Grant No. SR/FT/LS-31/2012).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are thankful to National Fund for Basic, Strategic and Frontier Application Research in Agriculture (ICAR-NFBSFARA) for funding the research activities for biofuel project (NFBSFARA/AE-2006/2010-11). We also acknowledge the support from SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST Fast Track Grant No. SR/FT/LS-31/2012).