Screening assays for biomass-degrading enzymes

Abstract

The enzymes that break down the components of lignocellulosic biomass play an important role in the production of value-added chemical feedstocks and biofuels. In order to accommodate the variety of substrates and industrial process conditions, enzymes with diverse activity profiles are required. These enzymes are encoded by genes obtained either through screening of microorganisms or genetic engineering of cloned genes by techniques such as directed evolution. Both of these strategies require activity assays that facilitate the screening of many recombinants to isolate those with the desired characteristics. In this review, activity assays for enzymes that degrade cellulose and hemicellulose (specifically xylan) are described for analyzing samples at various throughputs.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr Annette Chan for critical reading of the manuscript and invaluable discussion.

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Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.