The 40 Hottest Technologies of 2018 – as voting gets underway, the nominees in depth
Zip-Lignin – Biologically functional lignin that is easier to break down
What does it do, how does it work, who is it aimed at?
One of the key obstacles to extracting sugars from biomass is the complex polymer lignin, a major component of plant cell walls that gives plants their structural integrity and the most difficult and costly part of the plant to break down. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center researchers, including University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor John Ralph, Michigan State University Professor Curtis Wilkerson, University of British Columbia Professor Shawn Mansfield, and their collaborators, reported on deployment of the “Zip-Lignin approach” in which plants are engineered to incorporate a monomer-conjugate called coniferyl ferulate into lignin, thereby introducing bonds that are easier to break but retain lignin’s structural value to the plant. The Zip-Lignin technology has the potential to reduce the costs involved in deconstructing biomass, a cost-reduction with wide ranging effects on the paper industries, the bio-products industries, and on the production of cellulosic biofuels.
Competitively, what gives this technology an edge?
Native lignin is very difficult to break down by chemical or enzymatic means, which makes the task of producing paper and biofuels from plant material extremely difficult. GLBRC researchers discovered that it was possible to introduce weak bonds, or “zips,” into the lignin polymer, which would make it much easier and cheaper to break apart. This Zip-Lignin strategy to introduce esters into the lignin backbone has been heralded as a major breakthrough in designer lignins. Inspired by the proven incorporation of ferulates integrally into grass lignins, an exotic feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferase from Angelica sinensis was introduced into hybrid poplar and resulted in a lignin in which chemically labile ester bonds had been integrated into the polymer backbone, improving cell wall digestibility after mild alkaline pretreatment. This technology can enable more cost-effective plant material processing by reducing chemical inputs while retaining the lignin’s structural benefits.
What stage of development is this technology at right now?
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