Natural and Engineered Biomass Polysaccharide Degrading Nanomachines

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The sugar components of plant cell walls are one of the richest sources of carbon in Nature. They also represent a vast, largely untapped renewal energy resource for the generation of biofuels, and are particularly attractive since they would otherwise be considered organic compost and thus avoid the "fuel vs. food" debate. The normal breakdown of plant cell walls is the responsibility of bacteria and fungi, which produce biomolecules called enzymes that cut the various bonds in the resident sugars. A subset of bacteria not only produce these enzymes but they assemble them together as a single entity, where they can work together in a cooperative manner to decompose the plant cell wall sugars. This complex has been named the cellulosome. Given how efficient it is at breaking down plant cell wall sugars, there has been substantial interest from industry in harnessing the power of the cellulosome towards the alternative fuel production. To understand why the cellulosome functions so efficiently, we need to have a detailed understanding of the structure of all the components of the cellulosome and how they assembly into a single functional entity. This research program, unique in Canada, uses molecular biological and biochemical approaches to study these structures. Results from these studies will allow us to generate a detailed molecular model of the cellulosome. We will also use this information to create synthetic enzyme complexes that can degrade sugar components of seaweed more efficiently than the individual enzymes. Our findings will advance the basic knowledge of cellulosome system, and of enzyme complexes in general. It will provide valuable information that can be employed in future generation of engineered sugar-degrading systems that can be employed in the use of renewal energy resources in biofuel production. HQP will develop a diverse and comprehensive research skill set with expertise in bioinformatics, molecular and synthetic biology, protein engineering, structural biology, glycobiology, and enzymology.