Developing biocatalysts to valorize lignin

由于来自国外的竞争和对传统产品的需求不断增加，加拿大森林产品业必须进行范式转变，以保持竞争力。与此同时，对环境可持续的生物产品的需求正在迅速增长。生产可再生燃料、大宗商品和原料化学品以及生物材料的下一代木质纤维素生物炼制将推动必要的转变。这一转变将需要将占木质生物质15-30%的木质素转化为更高价值的产品。我们的项目将开发用于木质素分解和转化为生物产品的生物催化剂。这种“生物催化剂”可以释放加拿大森林生物质的巨大经济潜力，引入新的增值产品的生产，并大大减少该行业的生态足迹。我们的目标是开发两种类型的生物催化剂：（a）酶的木质素解聚;和（B）细菌的木质素解聚产物转化为高价值的产品。这些目标将使用我们实验室首创的尖端方法来实现。木质素解聚活性将使用自然分解生物质的微生物群落的宏基因组和基于活性的筛选来挖掘。利用基因组学方法将发现细菌中木质素解聚产物的降解途径。编码相关酶和途径的基因将构成开发生物催化剂和使木质纤维素生物质增值的工艺的工具包。有了这个工具包，我们将改造细菌，将木质素衍生的物流升级为商品化学品，如蜡酯和粘康酸酯。我们将与我们的工业合作伙伴合作，以确定适当的生物产品，将我们的生物催化剂整合到正在开发的工程系统中，并将由此产生的技术商业化。我们的合作伙伴包括FPInnovations，Fibria，Catalyst Paper，国家可再生能源实验室（NREL）和AB Enzymes。这些组织正在开发改善生物质生物精炼的技术，并准备采用新型木质素转化生物催化剂。

The Canadian forest products industry must undergo a paradigm shift to remain competitive, due to competition from abroad and the plummeting demand for traditional products. Meanwhile, there is burgeoning demand for environmentally-sustainable bioproducts. Next generation lignocellulosic biorefineries producing renewable fuels, commodity and feedstock chemicals, and biomaterials will drive the requisite shift. This shift will require that lignin, comprising 15-30% of woody biomass, be converted to higher value products. Our project will develop biocatalysts for the deconstruction and conversion of lignin into bioproducts. Such "biocatalysts" can unlock the enormous economic potential of Canada's forest biomass, usher in production of new value-added products, and substantially reduce the industry's ecological footprint. We aim to develop two types of biocatalysts: (a) enzymes that depolymerize lignin; and (b) bacteria that transform lignin depolymerization products to high-value products. These objectives will be achieved using cutting-edge methods pioneered in our laboratories. Lignin depolymerization activities will be mined using metagenomic and activity-based screens of microbial communities that naturally decompose biomass. Degradation pathways for lignin depolymerization products in bacteria will be discovered using genomic approaches. The genes encoding relevant enzymes and pathways will constitute a toolkit to develop biocatalysts and processes that valorize lignocellulosic biomass. With this toolkit, we will engineer bacteria to upgrade lignin-derived streams to commodity chemicals, such as wax esters and muconate. We will collaborate with our industrial partners to identify appropriate bioproducts, to integrate our biocatalysts in engineered systems under development, and to commercialize the resulting technologies. Our partners include FPInnovations, Fibria, Catalyst Paper, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AB Enzymes. These organizations are developing technologies to improve the biorefining of biomass and are poised to take up novel lignin-transforming biocatalysts.