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Treating maize plants with benzohydrazide increases saccharification of lignocellulose: A non-transgenic approach to improve cellulosic ethanol production

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Abstract

Cellulosic ethanol production will decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, positively impacting global warming, energy security, and urban pollution. In the last few years, our group has screened a few enzyme inhibitors of the phenylpropanoid pathway. We have shown that when some enzyme inhibitors are sprayed in young plants, they increase the lignocellulose saccharification in the long term at the workbench scale. Here, we screened five aromatic compounds for their ability to improve the saccharification of maize plants. Benzohydrazide increased saccharification in a broad range of concentrations in growth-room experiments, and it was selected for field-scale assays. At 20 g ha−1 (500 μM, 300 L ha−1), benzohydrazide increased by 33 and 46%, respectively, the saccharification of lignocellulose from maize leaves and stems. When the lignocellulose biomass of maize plants, sprayed with benzohydrazide or not, was submitted to hydrogen peroxide–acetic acid delignification pretreatment, benzohydrazide increased the saccharification by up to 76%. Benzohydrazide did not significantly affect any other biometric (length or fresh and dry weights) or biochemical (lignin, monolignols, structural hydroxycinnamates) parameters assessed. In brief, benzohydrazide could be used to improve saccharification in agroenergy crops.

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Funding

This study was financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001; Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia do Bioetanol (INCT Bioetanol); Araucaria Foundation (Grant number 013/2017 – PRONEX). D. C. I. Martarello and D. C. T Diniz thank CAPES for providing the scholarship. O. Ferrarese-Filho, R. Marchiosi, and W. D. dos Santos are research fellows of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

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Author notes

  1. Danielly Caroline Inacio Martarello and Débora Carvalho Tonete-Diniz contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plant Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry - CCB, State University of Maringá, Av. Colombo 5790, Maringá, 87020-900, Brazil

    Danielly Caroline Inacio Martarello, Débora Carvalho Tonete-Diniz, Diego Eduardo Romero Gonzaga, Aline Marengoni Almeida, Renato Polimeni Constantin, Karla Gabriela da Silva, Rodrigo Polimeni Constantin, Rogério Marchiosi, Osvaldo Ferrarese-Filho & Wanderley Dantas dos Santos

  2. Department of Chemistry, Federal Institute of Paraná, Paranavaí, 87703-536, Brazil

    Vanessa Guimarães Alves-Olher

  3. Sumitomo Chemical, Av. Pioneiro João Pereira, Maringá, 393987083-230, Brazil

    Fabiano Aparecido Rios

Authors
  1. Danielly Caroline Inacio Martarello
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  2. Débora Carvalho Tonete-Diniz
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  3. Diego Eduardo Romero Gonzaga
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  4. Aline Marengoni Almeida
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  12. Wanderley Dantas dos Santos
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Contributions

W. D. dos Santos conceptualized the study together with D. C. I. Martarello and D. C. Tonete-Diniz. D. C. I. Martarello, A. M. Almeida, Rodrigo P. Constantin, and R. Marchiosi performed the growth-room experiments. D. C. Tonete-Diniz, D. E. R. Gonzaga, K. G. Silva, Renato P. Constantin, and F. A. Rios performed the field experiments. V. G. A. Olher synthesized the compounds (1–3). D. C. I. Martarello, D. C. Tonete-Diniz, O. Ferrarese-Filho, and W. D. dos Santos analyzed the data and co-wrote the manuscript. All authors revised and approved the final format of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Osvaldo Ferrarese-Filho or Wanderley Dantas dos Santos.

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Highlights

• Aromatic compounds were screened for their ability to increase plant saccharification.

• Benzohydrazide, the best-scoring compound, was sprayed on 36-day-old maize crops.

• Treatments increased saccharification in mature harvested plants with no side effects.

• The treatment also boosted HPAC delignified biomass saccharification up to 76%.

• Results suggest that benzohydrazide can increase the production of cellulosic ethanol.

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Martarello, D.C.I., Tonete-Diniz, D.C., Gonzaga, D.E.R. et al. Treating maize plants with benzohydrazide increases saccharification of lignocellulose: A non-transgenic approach to improve cellulosic ethanol production. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 9943–9954 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01842-x

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