Engineering Glucose-Tolerant Variants by Probing Residues Lining the Active Site of a Fungal β-Glucosidase.
The hydrolytic breakdown of cellobiose into glucose, catalyzed by β-glucosidases, is the last and rate-limiting step in cellulose saccharification for producing fermentable glucose in the bioethanol industry. This limitation arises because β-glucosidase activity is inhibited by factors such as temperature, pH, and gluc...