2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Direct conversion of plant biomass to isoprene by microorganisms expressing cell-wall degrading enzymes from parasitic plants

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23656527
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Biofunction/Bioprocess
Research Institution	Osaka Prefecture University (2012-2013) Osaka University (2011)
Principal Investigator	OKAZAWA Atsushi 大阪府立大学, 生命環境科学研究科(系), 准教授 (10294042)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	OHTSUKI Takashi 山梨大学, 医学工学総合研究部, 准教授 (70313781)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	寄生植物 / 糖質加水分解酵素 / マンノシダーゼ / バイオマス変換 / 細胞壁多糖
Research Abstract	Enzymes which can degrade cell-wall polysaccharides of plants are useful for effective conversion of plant biomass. In this project, we focused on a parasitic plant, Orobanche minor, which can degrade the cell-wall of roots of their host plants. From RNAseq data, a beta-glucosidase homologous gene was obtained. The enzyme expressed in E. coli showed beta-mannosidase activity when cell-wall polysaccharides from O. minor seeds were used as a substrate. This is the first report that indicates beta-mannosidase from plants showed activity toward plant cell-wall components.