Using Fluorogenic Probes for the Investigation of Selective Biomass Degradation by Fungi

Authors

Qian Zhang, Utah State University
Xinrui Peng, Utah State University
Jon Y. Takemoto, Utah State UniversityFollow
Cheng-Wei Tom Chang, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title

Green Chemistry

Publication Date

12-26-2014

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry

Volume

17

First Page

1918

Last Page

1925

Abstract

A library of fifteen commercially purchased and synthetic fluorogenic probes was employed for the investigation of biomass degradation using extracts of white-rot fungi. These probes were selected or designed to mimic the dominant linkages in celluloses, hemicelluloses, and lignin, the three most abundant polymers found in biomass. The results show that white-rot fungi display a high preference for cleaving mannose- and glucose-based probes, which mimic hemicelluloses. Low degrees of cleavages were noted for xylose- and cellobiose-based probes. No cleavages were observed for probes that mimic the linkages in lignin. Overall, these discoveries prove that it is possible to employ fungi for selective degradation or release of hemicelluloses from biomass.

Recommended Citation

Zhang, Q.; Peng, X.; Grilley, M.; Takemoto, J. Y.; Chang, C.-W. T. "Using Fluorogenic Probes for the Investigation of Selective Biomass Degradation by Fungi." Green Chem. 2015, 17, 1918–1925