Screening of sugar cane cultivation soil bacteria with tolerance and biotransformation potential of phenolic derivatives

• Grant number: 24/07844-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: December 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Eleni Gomes
• Grantee: Adrian Gabriel Brandão Gouvêa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass can be an alternative renewable source to obtain biofuels, paper and other value-added compounds. Biomass deconstruction methods for these purposes generate a black liquor rich in lignin with polluting problem. However, itcan serve as raw material to obtain products of commercial and industrial importance. p-coumaric acid is one of the phenolic compounds resulting from the degradation of lignin, which can be used directly and also as a substrate for chemical synthesis or biological transformation into various compounds, such as 4-vinylphenol, a high-value product for the synthesis of various materials. The production of these compounds through biological processes is interesting due to its low cost, but the intolerance of microorganisms, in general, to phenolic compounds can be a limiting factor for this process. Based on this, this project seeks aim to bioprospect bacterial specimens from sugarcane soil samples, which are capable of tolerating and growing in liquor obtained in the treatment used to deconstruct the structure of sugarcane bagasse, in addition to test its capabilities in biotransforming p-coumaric acid into 4-vinylphenol.