Authors: Claudia I Ishizawa Tina Jeoh William S Adney Michael E Himmel David K Johnson Mark F Davis
Publish Date: 2009/06/17
Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 677-686
Abstract
It has previously been shown that the improved digestibility of dilute acid pretreated corn stover is at least partially due to the removal of xylan and the consequent increase in accessibility of the cellulose to cellobiohydrolase enzymes We now report on the impact that lignin removal has on the accessibility and digestibility of dilute acid pretreated corn stover Samples of corn stover were subjected to dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment with and without simultaneous partial lignin removal In addition some samples were completely delignified after the pretreatment step using acidified sodium chlorite The accessibility and digestibility of the samples were tested using a fluorescencelabeled cellobiohydrolase Trichoderma reesei Cel7A purified from a commercial cellulase preparation Partial delignification of corn stover during dilute acid pretreatment was shown to improve cellulose digestibility by T reesei Cel7A however decreasing the lignin content below 5 g g−1 by treatment with acidified sodium chlorite resulted in a dramatic reduction in cellulose digestibility Importantly this effect was found to be enhanced in samples with lower xylan contents suggesting that the near complete removal of xylan and lignin may cause aggregation of the cellulose microfibrils resulting in decreased cellulase accessibility
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