| Grant number: | 16/00740-2 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct) |
| Start date: | April 01, 2016 |
| End date: | September 03, 2020 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Biophysics - Molecular Biophysics |
| Principal Investigator: | Mário Tyago Murakami |
| Grantee: | Rosa Lorizolla Cordeiro |
| Host Institution: | Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 18/22192-2 - Ancestral reconstruction of the GH5_18 beta-mannosidase from Bifidobacterium longum, BE.EP.DD |
Abstract The production of bioactive compounds, alternative chemicals and biofuels from vegetal biomass is considered one of the most promising strategies to replace the current non-renewable petrochemical routes. One of the main challenges faced is the depolymerization of plant cell wall components, such as cellulose and hemicellulose into simple and/or fermentable sugars. The glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) enzymes degrade a broad spectrum of plant cell wall carbohydrates and therefore have great biotechnological potential. However, its 51 subfamilies predicted, 20 of them remain uncharacterized, which creates a lack of information towards all functional diversity present in this family, which is considered one of the largest and main families in the CAZy universe. Three uncharacterized subfamilies, GH5_18, GH5_19 and GH5_42, are phylogenetically close and predicted as mannanases, but they have been identified in organisms living at very distinct temperature ranges. The Bl18 protein was identified in the mesophilic bacterium Bifidobacterium longum; Tv19 protein belongs to the thermophilic archaea Thermoplasma volcanium; and Pt42 protein was identified in the psychrophilic bacterium Psychroflexus torquis. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this project aims to characterize functionally and structurally these three enzymes belonging to GH5 subfamilies whose activities and structural architecture are still unknown. The information generated in this research will be used for a better understanding of the evolution of GH5 enzymes and might be instrumental for rational protein engineering aiming at potential industrial applications in lignocellulosic biomass degradation. (AU) | |
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