title: Hemicelluloses negatively affect lignocellulose crystallinity for high biomass digestibility under NaOH and H2SO4 pretreatments in Miscanthus.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lignocellulose is the most abundant biomass on earth. However, biomass recalcitrance has become a major factor affecting biofuel production. Although cellulose crystallinity significantly influences biomass saccharification, little is known about the impact of three major wall polymers on cellulose crystallization. In this study, we selected six typical pairs of Miscanthus samples that presented different cell wall compositions, and then compared their cellulose crystallinity and biomass digestibility after various chemical pretreatments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A Miscanthus sample with a high hemicelluloses level was determined to have a relatively low cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) and enhanced biomass digestibility at similar rates after pretreatments of NaOH and H2SO4 with three concentrations. By contrast, a Miscanthus sample with a high cellulose or lignin level showed increased CrI and low biomass saccharification, particularly after H2SO4 pretreatment. Correlation analysis revealed that the cellulose CrI negatively affected biomass digestion. Increased hemicelluloses level by 25% or decreased cellulose and lignin contents by 31% and 37% were also found to result in increased hexose yields by 1.3-times to 2.2-times released from enzymatic hydrolysis after NaOH or H2SO4 pretreatments. The findings indicated that hemicelluloses were the dominant and positive factor, whereas cellulose and lignin had synergistic and negative effects on biomass digestibility.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using six pairs of Miscanthus samples with different cell wall compositions, hemicelluloses were revealed to be the dominant factor that positively determined biomass digestibility after pretreatments with NaOH or H2SO4 by negatively affecting cellulose crystallinity. The results suggested potential approaches to the genetic modifications of bioenergy crops.
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biomass-based Energy and Enzyme Technology, Huaiyin Normal University, Huaian, 223300, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Shuangfeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Chunqiao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Haofeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Zhengdan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Jiangfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Yanting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China.
authors.forename: Jianxiong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China.
authors.forename: Jingping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Centre of Plant Gene Research, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.|College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors.forename: Liangcai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peng