Efficient Secretory Production of Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenase BaLPMO10 and Its Application in Plant Biomass Conversion

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) can oxidatively break the glycosidic bonds of crystalline cellulose, providing more actionable sites for cellulase to facilitate the conversion of cellulose to cello-oligosaccharides, cellobiose and glucose. In this work, a bioinformatics analysis of BaLPMO10 revealed that it is a hydrophobic, stable and secreted protein. By optimizing the fermentation conditions, the highest protein secretion level was found at a IPTG concentration of 0.5 mM and 20 h of fermentation at 37 °C, with a yield of 20 mg/L and purity > 95%. The effect of metal ions on the enzyme activity of BaLPMO10 was measured, and it was found that 10 mM Ca²⁺ and Na⁺ increased the enzyme activity by 47.8% and 98.0%, respectively. However, DTT, EDTA and five organic reagents inhibited the enzyme activity of BaLPMO10. Finally, BaLPMO10 was applied in biomass conversion. The degradation of corn stover pretreated with different steam explosions was performed. BaLPMO10 and cellulase had the best synergistic degradation effect on corn stover pretreated at 200 °C for 12 min, improving reducing sugars by 9.2% compared to cellulase alone. BaLPMO10 was found to be the most efficient for ethylenediamine-pretreated Caragana korshinskii by degrading three different biomasses, increasing the content of reducing sugars by 40.5% compared to cellulase alone following co-degradation with cellulase for 48 h. The results of scanning electron microscopy revealed that BaLPMO10 disrupted the structure of Caragana korshinskii, making its surface coarse and poriferous, which increased the accessibility of other enzymes and thus promoted the process of conversion. These findings provide guidance for improving the efficiency of enzymatic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass.