Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | BB/E015190/1 | |
| Title | Dissecting the role of carbohydrate binding modules in plant cell wall degradation | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Production of other biomass-derived fuels (incl. Production from wastes)) 50%; Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Production of transport biofuels (incl. Production from wastes)) 50%; |
|
| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | BIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES (Biological Sciences) 100% | |
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 100% | |
| Principal Investigator |
Dr D (David ) Bolam No email address given Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences (ICaMB) Newcastle University |
|
| Award Type | Research Grant | |
| Funding Source | BBSRC | |
| Start Date | 13 August 2007 | |
| End Date | 12 August 2010 | |
| Duration | 36 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £335,276 | |
| Industrial Sectors | Transport Systems and Vehicles | |
| Region | North East | |
| Programme | ||
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Dr D (David ) Bolam , Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences (ICaMB), Newcastle University (100.000%) |
| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | This grant is linked to BB/E014364/1. |
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| Abstract | The primary objective of this research programme is to investigate the mechanism by which carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs) potentiate the activity of glycoside hydrolases against complete plant cell walls. We propose that the wide range of CBMs present in bacterial enzymes maximise the potential target substrates by directing the cognate enzymes not only to different regions of a specific plant cell wall but also increase the range of plant cell walls that can be degraded. In addition to maximising substrate access we also propose that CBMs can target specific subsets of hydrolases with complementary activities to the same region of the plant cell wall thereby maximising the synergistic interactions between these enzymes. This synergy is based on the premise that the hydrolysis of a specific polysaccharide will increase access of closely associated polymers to enzyme attack. The research programme will contain two major components; 1) the construction of hybrid enzymes containing numerous combinations of catalytic domains fused to CBMs; 2) analysis of the capacity of these enzymes to attack plant cell walls using both an immunohistochemical approach to dissect the spatial degradation of the plant cell wall in harness with a biochemical approach to quantify and identify the products released from these composite structures. Appropriate CBMs and the catalytic domains of glycoside hydrolases and esterases will be constructed and the biochemical and regio-selectivity of cell wall degradation will be evaluated. These studies will investigate the functional significance of CBMs that bind to crystalline cellulose, amorphous cellulose, xylan, xyloglucan and the reducing end of polysaccharide chains. The experiments will address key questions regarding the capacity of CBMs to not only target hydrolases to the plant cell wall but also to potentiate the synergy between the enzymes, which is central to the degradation of highly complex composite structures. | |
| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 22/11/13 | |
