Poster Presentation 6-42

 

Expression of Endoglucanase E1 in Transgenic Duckweed Lemna minor

 

Ye Sun1, William S. Adney2, Ben A. Bergmann3, Jiayang Cheng1, Stephen R. Decker2, Shelby Freer4, Michael E. Himmel2, Yufuko Nishimura3, Christopher D. Skory4, Anne-Marie Stomp3, Steven Thomas2, Brent Tisserat4 and Yuri T. Yamamoto3

 

1Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering

North Carolina State University

Weaver Labs 277, Raleigh, NC 27695-7625

 

2National Bioenergy Center

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

 

3Department of Forestry,

North Carolina State University

 

4National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research

USDA - Agricultural Research Service

Fermentation Biotechnology Research

 

Telephone:  (919) 515-6744; Fax:  (919) 515-7760; E-mail:  ysun@eos.ncsu.edu

 

Transgenic duckweed (Lemna minor) that expresses Acidothermus cellulolyticus E1 endoglucanase was generated using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.  Out of 15 independent transgenic lines, one line with the highest CMC-degrading activity was selected for further studies.  The 2-week-old transgenic duckweed fronds cultured in SH medium were ground in sodium citrate buffer (pH 4.8), and the expression of endoglucanase E1 in the supernatant was examined using immunoblotting and enzyme assays.  The E1 produced in transgenic duckweed was active and the expression level was 0.24% of total soluble protein.  The recombinant E1 protein was thermostable and had higher activity at 70°C compared to room temperature.  The average E1 activity at 70°C in duckweed extracts was 0.21 mmol min-1 g-1 fresh duckweed or 0.17 mmol min-1 mg-1 soluble protein. A 5-min heat treatment of the extract at 65°C effectively removed most other proteins without reducing the enzyme activity.  This may be useful for downstream processing. 

 

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