Extreme Expression of Cellulases in Poplar
Plant cell walls provide a vast, untapped source of sugars in the form of cellulose that can be fermented for the production of ethanol and other biofuels. However, there are several roadblocks to developing an economically viable cellulosic ethanol production process based on biochemical conversion, one of which is the cost of the enzymes required to change the cellulose to glucose. Historically, cellulase enzymes for digesting plant biomass have been produced and purified using bacteria. An alternative and potentially more economic approach is the production of the enzymes within the plant itself. The goal of this research was to verify a transgenic technology (In Plant Activation Technology – INPACT) in poplar which allows for the controlled high level accumulation of enzymes within the plant (Dugdale et al., 2013), and to assess the impact of the resulting cellulases on the efficiency of converting cellulose to fermentable sugars. INPACT is an inducible, gene amplification system which is unique in two ways. First, the INPACT gene cassette is designed so that the gene of interest is only transcribed in the presence of an initiation protein and as a result, no functional protein expression can occur without the initiation protein. Second, expression of the initiation protein is regulated by an inducible promoter such that INPACT acts as a switch to turn on high-level expression of proteins within the plant, and is particularly suited to proteins that may be toxic or hinder plant development as expression is tightly controlled by the INPACT trigger. The INPACT expression system combines the advantages of both stable and transient expression, and significantly, can be used to produce “difficult” proteins that cannot be expressed within the plant using conventional approaches.
- Research Organization:
- Syracuse Univ., NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0010411
- OSTI ID:
- 1569478
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-SYR-10411
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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