Study and characterization of bacteria cellulase enzymes

• Grant number: 15/11749-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Biochemistry of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Felipe Santiago Chambergo Alcalde
• Grantee: Beatriz de Paula Pereira
• Host Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Enzymatic hydrolysis of vegetal biomass is an important stage of carbon global cycle, however, despite its abundance, just a select organism group is able to degrade biomass due to recalcitrance of two important molecules in plants cell wall: lignin and cellulose. Cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide on Earth, however its crystalline molecule characteristic limits the enzymatic hydrolysis and the cellobiose units conversion. All biological mechanisms known to degrade cellulose use cellulase enzymes. Cellulase enzymes are produced by several organisms, but just a few is able to produce free enzymes that completely degrade crystalline cellulose. This project objective is to study and characterize cellulase enzymes produced by Bacillus sp. bacteria that degrade crystalline cellulose, in order to apply on biomass degradation.