Discovery of xylan- debranching enzymes by functional metagenomics

Xylan is a highly abundant biopolymer having, with the right modifications, outstanding chemical and physiochemical properties. Utilization of xylan remains limited as methodology for xylan processing is not optimal and relevant enzymes for efficient modification of the long-chain polymer are yet in principle unavailable. For example, efficient enzymatic debranching is desirable to reduce water solubility of the polymer and make it useful as a component in e.g. bio-based consumer products. Several xylan debranching enzymes are of interest, such as α-L-arabinofuranosidases, α-glucuronidase, acetyl xylan esterase and ferulic esterase, all liberating various sidechains and decorations from the xylan polymer chain, resulting in the conversion of the raw biopolymer to a higher value product. The H2020 project EnXylaScope targets discovery of novel xylan debranching enzymes, development of production systems and scale-up production of these enzymes, followed by processing of raw xylan biopolymers as well as usage of the suitable biomaterial in e.g. consumer products