Cellulose is the skeleton structure of almost all plants, which makes it an unlimited source as nature polymers. Cellulase enzyme can catalyze the hydrolysis of cellulose to produce fermentable simple sugars. But the efficiency of it is very low. Before hydrolysis, a process called enzymatic decrystallization will take place to break the aggregate of cellulose molecule and expose the cellulose molecule chains to active sites of cellulase enzyme. Although it has been speculated to be the rate-limiting step, the mechanism for decrystallization has not been elucidated. Static mode micro-cantilever sensors can be used to monitor the energy change of coating on them in real-time. By carefully coating a cellulose layer on only one side of micro-cantilever, we use micro-cantilever sensor to study the mechanism of enzymatic decrystallization and hydrolysis. Better understanding of these mechanisms will help us to develop new cellulase enzyme with higher efficiency.

Using nano mechanical approach to study enzyme catalysis

244th National Meeting (2012)

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