Substrate-Enzyme Interactions in Lignocellulosic Biodegradation

Cellulosic ethanol has long been recognized as a poor economic strategy, mainly due to its low enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency. The key to a successful cellulase product is based on gaining an appropriate understanding of the interaction between particular substrate and enzyme synergistic action, then providing a well-matched enzyme consortium to achieve complete and high-efficiency degradation of different cellulosic/lignocellulosic biomass. While the reaction system is of great complexity that involves multiple macro- and micro-factors from substrate properties, diverse enzymes and other proteins. Numerous studies have been devoted to this subject for many years and achieved great progress that deserves to be noticed.

We hope to collect recent studies on this topic to get a better understanding of the complex dynamic interactions between substrate and enzymes during the hydrolysis process. On the other hand, there is a gap between industry development and academic research, which should be addressed to promote the application of emerging technologies. In this context, research articles, critical reviews and perspectives should be collected from both industry and academy.

The scope of this Research Topic includes but is not limited to the followings.
• Recent advances in mechanisms underlying the synergistic action of enzyme cocktails for degrading lignocellulose
• Emerging techniques and modeling (e.g. multi-omic analyses and machine learning models) developed in industry and academy to explore “enzyme-substrate” interactions
• Approaches to design and validate tailored enzyme cocktails for hydrolyzing specific substrates towards bioeconomy