Evolution of Xylan PUL’s enzymes for the design of innovating enzymatic cocktails – DECO

Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is a renewable and inexhaustible carbon source on Earth and its valorization will drive sustainable bioeconomy. Microorganisms produce a huge repertoire of carbohydrate active enzymes in order to utilize LCB as carbon source. Bacteroides, encode fine-tuned gene clusters dedicated to polysaccharide metabolism called Polysaccharide Utilization Loci (PUL). We recently discovered a xylan PUL from termite gut whose enzymes showed promising activity on different LCB. In this project an original co-evolution strategy will be deployed to simultaneously engineer PUL’s enzymes towards different biomasses. In addition, the evolved enzymes will be used to create artificial enzyme assemblies to further maximize the synergy between the catalysts. All this work will be backed up by a thorough structure analysis to identify key amino-acids and spatial organization necessary to develop more efficient enzyme cocktails usable in bioeconomy.