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Updated: May 20, 2026

Isolation and Screening from Soil Biodiversity for Fungi Involved in the Degradation of Recalcitrant Materials
Published on: May 16, 2022
Challenges for assessing the performance of biomass degrading biocatalysts
Michael E Himmel1, Stephen R Decker, David K Johnson
1National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Biosciences Center, Golden, CO, USA. mike.himmel@nrel.gov
Abstract:
Common analytical challenges impact current work to estimate the cost of converting plant biomass to fermentable sugars. The most noteworthy are measuring cellulase and hemicellulase activities, cellulase and hemicellulase protein, biomass compositions (before and after pretreatment), and the products formed. The use of high-throughput (HTP) methods has shown considerable promise for improving both analytical precision and technician efficiency, but can also present pitfalls regarding experimental accuracy and relevance. Recent work demonstrates that HTP systems which include biomass composition analysis, thermal chemical pretreatment, and biomass saccharification can be realized.
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