Molecular basis of enzyme-catalyzed pehydrolysis of acetate esters for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass

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0932762KazlauskasSummary Replacing the current biofuels feedstock - corn - with lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, switchgrass or agricultural wastes is a key current goal of bioenergy research. Recalcitrance - inefficient release of sugars from lignocellulosic biomass - is the key problem that must be solved to make this replacement. The proposed solution is an unnatural enzyme-catalyzed reaction to make a strong oxidant peracetic acid. The objective for this application is a molecular-level understanding of an unnatural enzyme-catalyzed reaction - perhydrolysis of esters to form peracetic acid. The central hypothesis is that precise positioning of hydrogen bond donors or acceptors within the active site selectively deactivates water, thus favoring hydrogen peroxide. The PIs have formulated this hypothesis based on the comparison of x-ray crystal structures of enzymes with different abilities to make peracetic acid. The test for this hypothesis will be to correlate the structure and kinetics of perhydrolysis and to design new enzyme variants that make high concentrations of peracetic acid for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit includes first the molecular-level understanding of how to design enzyme catalyzed non-natural reactions. It will contribute to the research frontier catalytic promiscuity where enzymes catalyze several distinct chemical reactions. Learning how to favor one or another reaction gives insight into the natural process of divergent enzyme evolution and will deepen our understanding of the subtleties of enzymatic catalysis.Broader Impact: The proposed research will generate new fundamental knowledge on the molecular basis of how catalytic activity of enzymes can evolve to new catalytic activities and contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of oxidation of proteins. The proposed research will contribute to the discovery of efficient routes to peracetic acid to remove lignin to convert lignocellulosic biomass to fuels. The proposed research will educate and train undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, including students from underrepresented groups in chemical sciences. For the last three years, the PI participates in the Common X-Change program in Saint Paul public schools, which teaches experimental science at the elementary school level. The science teacher partner in this project over the last four years, Ms. Henriette Ngo-Bissoy, an African-American woman, and many of the students in the classes are from underrepresented groups in science. The co-PI, Tschirner, teaches a two week all day summer workshop titled "Topics in Natural Resources: Renewable energy and Bioproducts" for twenty high school teachers. About half of the class is hands-on experiments, inquiry based teaching that is suitable for classroom teaching. The proposed research will also support international cooperation of visitors from Europe and Asia to the PI's laboratories.