Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2009 Aug;20(4):412-9. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2009.07.001. Epub 2009 Aug 5.
Lignocellulosic biofuels represent a sustainable, renewable, and the only foreseeable alternative energy source to transportation fossil fuels. However, the recalcitrant nature of lignocellulose poses technical hurdles to an economically viable biorefinery. Low enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency and low productivity, yield, and titer of biofuels are among the top cost contributors. Protein engineering has been used to improve the performance of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes, as well as proteins involved in biofuel synthesis pathways. Unlike its great success seen in other industrial applications, protein engineering has achieved only modest results in improving the lignocellulose-to-biofuels efficiency. This review will discuss the unique challenges that protein engineering faces in the process of converting lignocellulose to biofuels and how they are addressed by recent advances in this field.
木质纤维素生物燃料是一种可持续的、可再生的、且是唯一可预见的运输用化石燃料替代品。然而，木质纤维素的顽固性质给经济可行的生物炼制厂带来了技术障碍。低酶解效率和生物燃料的低产率、产量和浓度是成本的主要贡献因素之一。蛋白质工程已被用于提高木质纤维素降解酶以及生物燃料合成途径中涉及的蛋白质的性能。与在其他工业应用中取得的巨大成功不同，蛋白质工程在提高木质纤维素到生物燃料的效率方面仅取得了适度的成果。本文将讨论蛋白质工程在将木质纤维素转化为生物燃料过程中所面临的独特挑战，以及该领域的最新进展如何解决这些挑战。
