The study is important because lignin — which is critical to the survival of plants in the wild — poses a problem for ethanol production, preventing enzymes from breaking down cellulose into simple sugars for fermentation. (sciencedaily.com)
This helps tenderize the kale and reduce its bitterness by breaking down the cellulose structure. (lemonandmocha.com)
«What this teaches researchers doing protein engineering on these incredibly challenging enzymes is that there are very minor changes to this catalytic domain that can be modified to dramatically affect the performance of the enzyme, making it capable of breaking down cellulose faster and thus allowing industrial processes to use less enzyme.» (sciencedaily.com)