Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2024 Jan 18;60(7):804-814. doi: 10.1039/d3cc05298b.
Lignin is an aromatic heteropolymer, found in plant cell walls as 20-30% of lignocellulose. It represents the most abundant source of renewable aromatic carbon in the biosphere, hence, if it could be depolymerised efficiently, then it would be a highly valuable source of renewable aromatic chemicals. However, lignin presents a number of difficulties for biocatalytic or chemocatalytic breakdown. Research over the last 10 years has led to the identification of new bacterial enzymes for lignin degradation, and the use of metabolic engineering to generate useful bioproducts from microbial lignin degradation. The aim of this article is to discuss the chemical mechanisms used by lignin-degrading enzymes and microbes to break down lignin, and to describe current methods for generating aromatic bioproducts from lignin using enzymes and engineered microbes.
木质素是一种芳香杂聚物，存在于植物细胞壁中，占木质纤维素的 20-30%。它代表了生物圈中最丰富的可再生芳香碳源，因此，如果能够有效地解聚，那么它将是一种极具价值的可再生芳香化学品来源。然而，木质素的生物催化或化学催化分解存在一些困难。过去 10 年的研究已经鉴定出用于木质素降解的新型细菌酶，并利用代谢工程从微生物木质素降解中生成有用的生物制品。本文旨在讨论木质素降解酶和微生物用于分解木质素的化学机制，并描述使用酶和工程微生物从木质素生成芳香生物制品的当前方法。
