The Termite Digestome: Understanding the Digestive Physiology Involved in Lignocellulosic Biomass Degradation

<p>The purpose of this research was to advance the understanding of lower termite digestive physiology and discover potential biocatalysts that can aid in the degradation of lignocellulosic biomass. Various protein characterization and gene expression methods were used throughout this research in order to accomplish these objectives. The results of this dissertation indicate that: 1) termites and their symbionts act in a synergistic manner to degrade biomass in vitro, 2) the host fraction of the gut (i.e., foregut and midgut) is the likely site of glucose absorption, 3) the termite and its symbionts contribute specific enzymes to the digestive process, 4) diet impacts biochemical and molecular aspects of termite digestive physiology, 5) the genetic makeup of the termite digestome is highly conserved, and 6) potential esterase-based ligninases from this termite can enhance saccharification in the presence of recombinant cellulases. These results suggest that utilizing Reticulitermes flavipes as a source of feedstock-specific recombinant enzymes for utilization in commercial biorefinery processes can likely decrease biocatalyst input while increasing simple sugar output, resulting in a more</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Entomology

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Karl, Zachary John

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michael Scharf
• Jonathan Neal
• John Patterson
• Nathan Mosier

• termite digestive physiology
• biocatalysts
• degradation
• lignocellulosic biomass
• pure sciences
• biological sciences
• Biochemistry
• Entomology
• Molecular Biology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/131

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:docs.lib.purdue.edu:open_access_dissertations-1084