Exploring cellulosic properties through enzyme modifications

纤维素是地球上最丰富的物质之一，它自然赋予植物细胞结构和灵活性。纤维素通常是包括制糖在内的工业过程的副产品，因此，为了利用这种材料，需要探索其应用。例如，纤维素被用作生物燃料（可替代化石燃料的天然衍生燃料）和用作制造生物塑料（来自可持续自然来源并可生物降解的塑料）的添加剂，从而针对不可持续的做法。利用纤维素的特性并对其进行改性以扩大其应用范围是制造这些纤维素衍生材料的必要条件。目前，制造这些产品的过程涉及化学品和恶劣的条件。为了解决这个问题，酶可以作为一种“绿色”替代品，在温和的条件下进行同样的修饰。然而，并不是所有的酶都能对纤维素起作用。因此，本项目旨在开发一种方法来寻找能够对纤维素进行各种修饰的酶。这些变化必须被检测出来，但不幸的是，纤维素很难分析，所以这种方法需要对这些变化敏感，并且能够在短时间内观察到很多酶。荧光分子（荧光团）可用于检测这些修饰。要有一种灵敏的方法，需要观察不同的荧光团，找到它们特异性结合的地方。在这个项目结束时，我们将有一个荧光屏来检测酶的变化。能产生变化的酶会产生荧光纤维素。这些酶产生的产物将会被观察到它们所具有的特性发生了什么变化。发现的酶可以在工业上用于开发纤维素基材料。

Cellulose is one of the most abundant materials on Earth, naturally it gives plant cells structure and flexibility. Cellulose is often a by-product of industrial processes, including sugar production, therefore to make use of this material, its applications need to be explored. For example, cellulose is being used to target unsustainable practices by being utilised as biofuels (alternative naturally derived fuels to fossil fuels) and as an additive in making bioplastics (plastic which comes from sustainable natural sources and can be biodegradable). Taking advantage of the cellulosic properties and modifying them to widen its applications is essential to make these cellulose derived materials. Currently to make these products the process involves chemicals and harsh conditions. To combat this, enzymes may be used as a "green" alternative to make the same modifications under gentle conditions. However, not all enzymes can work on cellulose. Therefore, this project aims to develop a method to find enzymes that can make various modifications on cellulose. These changes have to be detected but unfortunately cellulose is hard to analyse so the methods need to be sensitive to the changes and be able to look at a lot of enzymes in a short period of time. Fluorescent molecules (fluorophores) can be used to detect these modifications. To have a sensitive method involves looking into different fluorophores to find where they specifically bind. At the end of this project we will have a fluorescent screen to detect the changes made by the enzymes. The enzymes that can make changes will result in fluorescent cellulose. The products that these enzymes make will then be looked at to see what change in properties they possess. The enzymes found can be used in industry to develop cellulose based materials.