Duckweed (Lemna minor) is a novel natural inducer of cellulase production in Trichoderma reesei

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Industrial Biology Systems and Processing Engineering, Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
College of Life Sciences, The Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26529v1
Subject Areas
Biotechnology, Microbiology
Keywords
Fermentation, Cellulase, Duckweed, Hydrolysis, Starch
Copyright
© 2018 Li et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Li C, Feng J, Bai X, Chen S, Zhang D, He R, Li D. 2018. Duckweed (Lemna minor) is a novel natural inducer of cellulase production in Trichoderma reesei. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26529v1

Abstract

An inducer is crucial for cellulase production. In this study, duckweed was used as an inducer of cellulase production by Trichoderma reesei RUT C30. In a reaction induced by 50 g l-1 duckweed in shake flasks, the filter-paper activity (FPA) reached 6.5 FPU ml-1, a value comparable to that induced by avicel. The enzyme-hydrolysis rate induced by steam-exploded corn stalks was 54.2%, representing a 28% improvement over that induced by avicel. The duckweed starch was hydrolyzed to glucose, which was subsequently used for biomass accumulation during the fermentation process. Furthermore, to optimize control of the fermentation process, a combined substrate of avicel and duckweed was used to induce cellulase production by T. reesei RUT C30. The cellulase production and hydrolysis rates for the combined substrate, compared with avicel alone, were 39.6% and 36.7% higher, respectively. The results of this study suggest that duckweed is a good inducer of cellulase production in T. reesei, and it might aid in decreasing the cost of lignocellulosic-material hydrolysis.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Raw data of the experiments

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26529v1/supp-1