New enzyme reduces lignin, increases available sugar

Biobased Digest
Tom Saidak
August 7, 2012

In New York, Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists have created a new enzyme that effectively “masks” the synthetic precursors of lignin. When it was expressed in plants, this enzyme substantially reduced lignin content in the cell wall and increased the digestibility of cell wall biomass, which should make it easier to convert plant biomass into biofuels [and biochemicals]. In Arabidopsis plants, scientists saw a drop in lignin content by up to 24 percent, leading to a 21 percent increase in the release of cell wall sugars. The next step for the scientists is to test the enzyme’s function in poplar trees or other crops, to see if it will improve cell wall biomass digestibility by reducing lignin.

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