Renewable Bioproducts Institute, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2016 Oct;100(20):8685-91. doi: 10.1007/s00253-016-7820-1. Epub 2016 Sep 19.
With today's environmental concerns and the diminishing supply of the world's petroleum-based chemicals and materials, much focus has been directed toward alternative sources. Woody biomass presents a promising option due to its sheer abundance, renewability, and biodegradability. Lignin, a highly irregular polyphenolic compound, is one of the major chemical constituents of woody biomass and is the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth, surpassed only by cellulose. The pulp and paper and cellulosic ethanol industries produce lignin on the scale of millions of tons each year as a by-product. Traditionally, lignin has been viewed as a waste material and burned as an inefficient fuel. However, in recent decades, research has focused on more economical ways to convert lignin into value-added commodities, such as biofuels, biomaterials, and biochemicals, thus developing and strengthening the concept of fully integrated biorefineries. Owing to the phenolic structure of lignin, it is possible to enzymatically graft molecules onto its surface using laccases (benzenediol:oxygen oxidoreductases, EC 1.10.3.2) to create exciting novel biomaterials. These environmentally friendly enzymes use oxygen as their only co-substrate and produce water as their sole by-product, and have thus found great industrial application. This mini-review highlights recent advances in the field of laccase-facilitated functionalization of lignin as well as promising future directions for lignin-based polymers.
随着当今对环境问题的关注以及世界石油基化学品和材料供应的减少，人们的注意力主要集中在替代资源上。木质生物质因其丰富的储量、可再生性和可生物降解性而成为一种很有前途的选择。木质素是一种高度不规则的多酚化合物，是木质生物质的主要化学成分之一，是地球上仅次于纤维素的第二丰富的生物聚合物。制浆造纸和纤维素乙醇行业每年都会生产数以百万吨计的木质素作为副产品。传统上，木质素被视为废物，并作为低效燃料燃烧。然而，近几十年来，人们的研究重点是寻找更经济的方法将木质素转化为附加值商品，如生物燃料、生物材料和生物化学品，从而开发和加强全集成生物精炼厂的概念。由于木质素的酚结构，有可能使用漆酶（邻苯二酚：氧氧化还原酶，EC 1.10.3.2）在其表面酶促接枝分子，从而创造令人兴奋的新型生物材料。这些环保型酶仅使用氧气作为其共底物，并仅产生水作为其唯一的副产物，因此在工业上得到了广泛应用。这篇迷你综述重点介绍了漆酶促进木质素功能化方面的最新进展，以及基于木质素的聚合物的有前景的未来方向。
