Extremophiles: General and Plant Biomass Based Biorefinery

267 Pages·2022·13.343 MB·English

by  Pratibha Dheeran, Sachin Kumar

Extremophiles
General and Plant Biomass Based Biorefinery
Editors
Pratibha Dheeran
Department of Botany
Maharaj Singh College
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Sachin Kumar
Biochemical Conversion Division
Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bio-Energy
Kapurthala, Punjab, India
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A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
Cover credit: The picture taken by the editor.
First edition published 2022
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data (applied for)
ISBN: 978-0-367-85652-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01418-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003014188
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Radiant Productions
Preface
Extremophiles are microorganisms which can thrive in extreme conditions such as either high
or low temperature, pressure, salt concentration, alkaline/acidic, etc. These extremophiles may
be harnessed for their applications in extreme conditions where normal microorganisms fall
short to survive. Moreover, they are capable of degrading the different wastes efficiently under
the extreme conditions desired by many industrial and biorefining processes. Extremophiles may
play an important role in biorefining of waste materials such as lignocellulosic wastes, industrial
wastes, biomedical wastes, etc. Most of these wastes need extreme conditions for their processing.
Biorefinery is an integration of processes for generating more than one product to make the process
economically and environmentally sustainable. The book ‘Extremophiles: General and Plant
Biomass Based Biorefinery’ covers the extremophiles in general and applications of extremophiles
for generating value-added products from plant biomass in a biorefinery manner, and has thirteen
chapters as described below:
Chapter 1 describes the diversity and applications of extremophiles along with current trends. The
authors have focused on different types of extremophiles with examples, their habitats, and proteins
and metabolic adaptations to their environments. The chapter encapsulates the understanding about
different extremophiles and their pertinent role in biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries.
Chapter 2 describes the diversity, enzymology and applications of extremophiles for sustainable
bioenergy production. The authors have compiled the information about adaptation capabilities
adopted by different extremophiles for their prospective utilization and applications in bioenergy
production. The diversity, enzymology, cell wall properties, cell-transport mechanism, DNA/protein
synthesis in extremophiles are also discussed in much detail to improve the present understanding
and advances in this area of research.
Chapter 3 describes life of microorganisms in extreme environments. The authors have discussed
the investigations of extremophiles, their habitats, biomolecules and products of extraordinary
potential in various biotechnological operations and utilization of extremophiles in their creation
or production.
Chapter 4 understands the insights into the enzymology and the capability of a thermophilic
genus Geobacillus to degrade plant biomass through genomics and metagenomic analyses. The
authors have summarized the current state of knowledge about the thermophilic genus Geobacillus,
including genomic, metagenomic, and other omics analysis to highlight the extraordinary functional
diversity of members of Geobacillus as a rich source of biomass-degrading enzymes of potential
biotechnological significance.
Chapter 5 discusses the bioprospecting of extremophiles/extremozymes by employing various
techniques such as omics analysis for the identification of countless novel enzymes and their
application for improving sustainability of existing biotechnological processes towards a greener
biobased industry. Furthermore, existing technologies for the production of value-added products
and their limitations and strategies to overcome those limitations are also discussed.
iv Extremophiles: General and Plant Biomass Based Biorefinery
Chapter 6 explores the potential applications of extremophiles in biorefinery process for the
production of different bioactive value-added products like enzymes, biofuels, pharma products, etc.
This chapter also sheds light into the immerging bioremediation technologies using extremophiles.
Chapter 7 elaborates the advancements in extremozymes and their potential applications in biorefinery.
The authors have discussed the potential applications of extremophiles and their extremozymes with
major focus on the conversion of lignocellulosic and starchy wastes into valuable products.
Chapter 8 explores the adaptations, importance and industrial relevance of psychophilic enzymes.
This chapter also dictates the various modifications in the psychrophilic enzymes to sustain their
lifestyle in hash conditions and summarizes their contribution in the development of various
sustainable energy and environmental efficient industrial processes.
Chapter 9 discusses the basic concept of hemicellulase and α-L-arabinofuranosidase enzymes
as extremozymes including their structure, biochemical properties (pH, temperature, etc.),
microorganisms involved in their production along with their potential applications in the different
industries as extremozymes.
Chapter 10 discusses the various aspects of aviation biofuel or jet biofuel productions based on ASTM
standard using extremozymes. The author has emphasized on understanding of metabolic dynamics
of extremophiles for the production of aviation biofuel or jet biofuel at an economical rate.
Chapter 11 explains an overview of different biofuels and extremophiles, current development on
application of extremophiles for different type of biofuel production.
Chapter 12 discusses the recent advances in using microbial catalysts under extreme conditions and
possible new routes that extremophilic microorganisms open for biofuels production.
Chapter 13 deals with the latest advancements and current scenario mainly focusing on the major
challenges for biochemical conversion of agricultural waste to biofuels. Besides this, it also deals
with the commercial facets and valorization of by-products of hemicellulose, lignin and silica.
The authors have also discussed the various strategies for the development of a bioprocess using
solvent-tolerant and inhibitor-tolerant saccharifying and (co)-fermenting strains, and productivity,
and situate the duct for novel cutting edge prospects for biofuel production in biorefinery mode.
India Pratibha Dheeran
Sachin Kumar
Acknowledgements
We thank all the authors, who made painstaking contributions in the making of this book. Their
contributions brought the desired lusture to the quality of this book. Their patience and diligence
in revising the initial draft of the chapters after incorporating the comments/suggestions of the
reviewers are highly appreciated.
We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of all the reviewers for their constructive
and valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the contributions of various
authors.

Contents
Preface iii
Acknowledgements v
1. Extremophiles: Diversity, Biotechnological Applications and Current Trends 1
Yogita Lugani and Venkata Ramana Vemuluri
2. Extremophiles for Sustainable Bio-energy Production: Diversity, Enzymology and 31
Current Applications
Amit Verma, Tirath Raj, Shulbhi Verma, Varun Kumar and Ruchi Agrawal
3. Extremophiles: Life of Microorganisms in Extreme Environments 43
Rahul Kumar, Ramchander Merugu, Swati Mohapatra, Sneha Sharma and Hemlata
4. Understanding the Role of a Thermophilic Genus Geobacillus in the Hydrolytic and 67
Oxidative Degradation of Plant Biomass: Insights from Genomics and Metagenomic
Analyses
Tanvi Govil, David R. Salem and Rajesh K. Sani
5. Bioprospecting Extremophiles for Sustainable Biobased Industry 83
Neha Basotra, Yashika Raheja, Gaurav Sharma, Kumud Ashish Singh, Diksha Sharma,
Rohit Rai and Bhupinder Singh Chadha
6. Exploration of Extremophiles for Value-Added Products: A Step Towards 110
Sustainable Bio-refinery
Surojit Bera, Trinetra Mukherjee, Subhabrata Das, Sandip Mandal, Suprabhat Mukherjee
and Sagnik Chakraborty
7. Advancements in Extremozymes and their Potential Applications in Biorefinery 140
Nivedita Sharma and Nisha Sharma
8. Psychrophilic Enzymes: Adaptations and Industrial Relevance 166
Shivika Sharma, Vikas Sharma, Subhankar Chatterjee and Sachin Kumar
9. Advancements in Hemicellulosic Extremozymes and Their Applications: 183
A Future Perspective
Sweety Kaur, Gurmeen Rakhra and Richa Arora
10. Extremophiles in Aviation Biofuel Production 202
S.M. Bhatt
11. Application of Extremophiles in the Area of Bioenergy 214
Nibedita Sarkar
12. Biofuel Production from Biomass using Extremophilic Microorganisms 228
Sunny Kumar
13. Bioprocessing of Agricultural Residues for Biofuel Production: Current Scenario 239
Richa Arora, Sonali Thakur, Sweety Kaur and Sachin Kumar
Index 257

1
Extremophiles
Diversity, Biotechnological Applications and
Current Trends
Yogita Lugani1,2 and Venkata Ramana Vemuluri1,*
1. Introduction
Extremophiles are adapted to thrive under myriad extreme environmental conditions such as high
(55ºC to 121ºC) or low (–2ºC to –20ºC) temperature, acidic (pH < 4) or alkaline (pH > 8) pH, high
pressure (> 500 atm), nutrient shortage niche (like ice, rock, soil, air and water), radiations (ultraviolet
resistance > 600 J/m2), chemical extremes of heavy metals (like zinc, copper, cadmium, arsenic,
etc.) and high salt concentrations (5% to 30%) (Navarro-Gonzalez et al. 2009). Some extremophiles
may be found in combination of extreme environments such as high temperature and high alkalinity,
low temperature and high pressure, and high temperature and high acidity. Extremophiles represent
a key of research for multitude disciplines due to their ability to thrive under harsh environmental
conditions. For the first time, the term extremophile was used in 1974 by MacElroy (MacElroy
1974). The first International Congress on Extremophiles was held in Portugal in 1996 and the
scientific journal on “extremophiles” was launched in 1997. In 2002, an International Society
for Extremophiles (ISE) was formed to share ideas, information and development in the field of
extremophiles all over the world (Parihar and Bagaria 2020). Most of the extremophiles identified
till date belongs to archaea domain; however, many extremophiles from eubacterial and eukaryotic
kingdoms have also been identified and characterized (Rothschild and Manicinelli 2001). On the
basis of their niche, the extremophiles can be classified as psychrophiles, thermophiles, acidophiles,
alkaliphiles, halophiles, radiophiles, metallophiles, xerophiles, barophiles, and basophiles (Dumorne
et al. 2017, Parihar and Bagaria 2020). In such organisms, specific proteins and enzymes mediate
the metabolic processes under extreme environmental conditions. Quorum sensing (QS) is the major
mechanism which helps in the regulation of various physiological and virulence process in most
bacteria including extremophiles for biofilm formation, lowering the freezing point, persistent cell
formation, cold adaptation, and oxidative stress resistance (Kaur et al. 2019). Thermophilic proteins,
acidophilic proteins, halophilic proteins, and barophilic proteins have been gaining more attention
1 Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank (MTCC), CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh-160036,
India.
2 Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and
Management (NIFTEM), Sonepat, Haryana-131028, India.
Email: [email protected]
* Corresponding author: [email protected]