Production of Feruloyl Esterases by Aspergillus Species
Miia R. Mäkelä, Luis Alexis Jiménez Barboza, Ronald P. de Vries and Kristiina S. Hildén
from: Aspergillus and Penicillium in the Post-genomic Era (Edited by: Ronald P. de Vries, Isabelle Benoit Gelber and Mikael Rørdam Andersen). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 129-144.
Abstract
Ferulic acid esterases are enzymes capable of releasing ester-linked hydroxycinnamic acids from certain polysaccharide moieties. These carbohydrate polymers, xylan and pectin, are ubiquitous in nature, and are mostly found as major constituents of plant cell walls. Plant cell walls are the most common renewable carbon source on earth. They encompass many different types of biopolymer complexes harnessed together such as cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectin, lignin and proteins. Together these compounds form lignocellulose, which is one of the most resilient materials found in nature. Ferulic acid is one of the possible linkages between plant cell wall polymers and therefore is a major factor in the recalcitrance of cell wall against microbial attack. Saprobic plant cell wall degrading fungi therefore produce feruloyl esterases that are capable of removing ferulic acid from the polysaccharides in order to weaken the integrity of the cell wall. In this study we evaluated the variation in feruloyl esterase production of a set of Aspergillus| species, a fungal genus with many industrial applications, during growth on plant biomass in the presence and absence of ferulic acid read more ...
