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Published online on October 23, 2006, 10.1073/pnas.0605381103
PNAS | October 31, 2006 | vol. 103 | no. 44 | 16165-16169


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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / BIOCHEMISTRY
Enzyme–microbe synergy during cellulose hydrolysis by Clostridium thermocellum

Yanpin Lu*, Yi-Heng Percival Zhang*,{dagger}, and Lee R. Lynd*,{ddagger},§

*Thayer School of Engineering and {ddagger}Department of Biology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755

Edited by Roy H. Doi, University of California, Davis, CA, and approved August 24, 2006 (received for review July 11, 2006)

Specific cellulose hydrolysis rates (g of cellulose/g of cellulase per h) were shown to be substantially higher (2.7- to 4.7-fold) for growing cultures of Clostridium thermocellum as compared with purified cellulase preparations from this organism in controlled experiments involving both batch and continuous cultures. This "enzyme–microbe synergy" requires the presence of metabolically active cellulolytic microbes, is not explained by removal of hydrolysis products from the bulk fermentation broth, and appears due to surface phenomena involving adherent cellulolytic microorganisms. Results support the desirability of biotechnological processes featuring microbial conversion of cellulosic biomass to ethanol (or other products) in the absence of added saccharolytic enzymes.

cellulase | cellulosome | consolidated bioprocessing | ethanol

{dagger}Present address: Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061.

Author contributions: Y.L., Y.-H.P.Z. and L.R.L. designed research; Y.L. performed experiments; Y.L., Y.-H.P.Z., and L.R.L. analyzed data; and L.R.L. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS direct submission.

§To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lee.lynd{at}Dartmouth.edu

© 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA


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