Impacts of biofilms on the conversion of cellulose

摘要

Components and structure of lignocellulosic plant cell walls. Lignocellulosic plant cell walls are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignins. Cellulose is a homopolysaccharide of -glucose monomers which are glycosidically linked in the β-(1–4) configuration. The repetitive unit is cellobiose. Multiple linear cellulose chains form an elementary fibril stabilized by hydrogen bonds. Multiple bundles of cellulose fibers coagulate and form macrofibrils. Hemicellulose is in contrast to cellulose an often branched heteropolysaccharide composed of glucose and dependent of the plant species different pentoses such as xylose, mannose, and arabinose. The monomeric building blocks of lignin are coniferyl alcohol, ρ-coumaryl alcohol and sinapyl alcohol which are linked by carbon-carbon and ether linkages. The structure of lignin is adapted from Rozmysłowicz et al. ( ). The three polymers cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin form the highly recalcitrant composite structure lignocellulose. Please note that the 3D structure of the composite material is simplified for better visualization. As example, the number of elementary cellulose fibers which congregate to micro- and macrofibrils is significantly higher