Bioscouring of cotton with pectinase enzyme in a non-aqueous system

Application of Thermomyces lanuginosus polygalacturonase produced in Komagataella phaffii in biomass hydrolysis and textile bioscouring

In this work, the polygalacturonase (TL-PG1) from the thermophilic fungus Thermomyces lanuginosus was heterologously produced for the first time in the yeast Komagataella phaffii. The TL-PG1 was successfully expressed under the control of the AOX1 promoter and sequentially purified by His-tag affinity. The purified recombinant pectinase exhibited an activity of 462.6 U/mL toward polygalacturonic acid under optimal conditions (pH 6 and 55 ˚C) with a 2.83 mg/mL and 0.063 μmol/minute for Km and Vmax, respectively. When used as supplementation for biomass hydrolysis, TL-PG1 demonstrated synergy with the enzymatic cocktail Ctec3 to depolymerize orange citrus pulp, releasing 1.43 mg/mL of reducing sugar. In addition, TL-PG1 exhibited efficiency in fabric bioscouring, showing potential usage in the textile industry. Applying a protein dosage of 7 mg/mL, the time for the fabric to absorb water was 19.77 seconds (ten times faster than the control). Adding the surfactant Triton to the treatment allowed the reduction of the enzyme dosage by 50% and the water absorption time to 6.38 seconds. Altogether, this work describes a new versatile polygalacturonase from T. lanuginosus with the potential to be employed in the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and bioscouring.

Characterization of bioscoured cotton fabrics using FT-IR ATR spectroscopy and microscopy techniques

The effects of bioscouring were investigated by characterizing the chemical and physical surface changes of cotton fabrics using a purified pectinase enzyme from Bacillus subtilis strain WSHB04-02. Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) attenuated total-reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques were employed. FT-IR ATR spectroscopy provided a fast and semi-quantitative assessment of the removal of pectins and/or waxes on the cotton surface by comparing the changes in intensity of the carbonyl peak induced by HCl vapor treatment at around 1736 cm(-1). The bioscoured surface could be clearly distinguished from those of untreated and alkali-treated cotton fibers using a combination of SEM and AFM. The images produced using these techniques revealed that the surface morphography and topography of the cotton fibers were shaped by the etching action mode of pectinases during bioscouring. These findings demonstrated that AFM is a useful supplement to SEM in characterizing cotton surfaces.