A mini-review on the applications of cellulose-binding domains in lignocellulosic material utilizations

Abstract

This manuscript provides a mini review on the fundamentals of cellulose binding domains (CBDs) or cellulose binding modules (CBMs) and their applications using lignocellulosic materials. CBDs, the non-productive part of cellulases, have miscellaneous biological functions and have been widely applied in lignocellulose hydrolysis, protein engineering, structural support, metabolism, energy storage, antibiosis, immunological recognition, targeting, attachment, etc. due to their specific affinity to various substrates of lignocelluloses. Understanding of the properties and mechanisms of CBDs is of vital significance because it provides the basis for fine manipulation of cellulose-CBM interactions and eventually improves the bioconversion performance of lignocelluloses into fuels and desired chemicals. In this short review, the fundamentals of CBD, the definition of CBM family, and the structures of different CBM families are introduced. Then recent findings in the applications of CBDs are discussed relative to the lignocelllulosic utilizations.