Cellulase production and efficient saccharification of biomass by a new mutant Trichoderma afroharzianum MEA-12

Zhi-Qing Peng; Chuang Li; Yi Lin; Sheng-Shan Wu; Li-Hui Gan; Jian Liu; Shu-Liang Yang; Xian-Hai Zeng; Lu Lin

doi:10.1186/s13068-021-02072-z

Cellulase production and efficient saccharification of biomass by a new mutant Trichoderma afroharzianum MEA-12

Biotechnol Biofuels. 2021 Nov 22;14(1):219. doi: 10.1186/s13068-021-02072-z.

Authors

Zhi-Qing Peng¹, Chuang Li¹, Yi Lin¹, Sheng-Shan Wu^{1

2

3}, Li-Hui Gan^{1

2

3}, Jian Liu^{1

2

3}, Shu-Liang Yang^{1

2

3}, Xian-Hai Zeng^{4

5

6}, Lu Lin^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China.
² Fujian Engineering and Research Centre of Clean and High-Valued Technologies for Biomass, Xiamen, 361102, China.
³ Xiamen Key Laboratory of Clean and High-Valued Utilization for Biomass, Xiamen, 361102, China.
⁴ College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China. xianhai.zeng@xmu.edu.cn.
⁵ Fujian Engineering and Research Centre of Clean and High-Valued Technologies for Biomass, Xiamen, 361102, China. xianhai.zeng@xmu.edu.cn.
⁶ Xiamen Key Laboratory of Clean and High-Valued Utilization for Biomass, Xiamen, 361102, China. xianhai.zeng@xmu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Background: Cellulase plays a key role in converting cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugar to produce chemicals and fuels, which is generally produced by filamentous fungi. However, most of the filamentous fungi obtained by natural breeding have low secretory capacity in cellulase production, which are far from meeting the requirements of industrial production. Random mutagenesis combined with adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) strategy is an effective method to increase the production of fungal enzymes.

Results: This study obtained a mutant of Trichoderma afroharzianum by exposures to N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), Ethyl Methanesulfonate (EMS), Atmospheric and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP) and ALE with high sugar stress. The T. afroharzianum mutant MEA-12 produced 0.60, 5.47, 0.31 and 2.17 IU/mL FPase, CMCase, pNPCase and pNPGase, respectively. These levels were 4.33, 6.37, 4.92 and 4.15 times higher than those of the parental strain, respectively. Also, it was found that T. afroharzianum had the same carbon catabolite repression (CCR) effect as other Trichoderma in liquid submerged fermentation. In contrast, the mutant MEA-12 can tolerate the inhibition of glucose (up to 20 mM) without affecting enzyme production under inducing conditions. Interestingly, crude enzyme from MEA-12 showed high enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency against three different biomasses (cornstalk, bamboo and reed), when combined with cellulase from T. reesei Rut-C30. In addition, the factors that improved cellulase production by MEA-12 were clarified.

Conclusions: Overall, compound mutagenesis combined with ALE effectively increased the production of fungal cellulase. A super-producing mutant MEA-12 was obtained, and its cellulase could hydrolyze common biomasses efficiently, in combination with enzymes derived from model strain T. reesei, which provides a new choice for processing of bioresources in the future.

Keywords: Adaptive laboratory evolution; Biomass; Cellulase; Compound mutagenesis; Trichoderma afroharzianum.

Abstract

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