Overexpression of a Paenibacillus campinasensis xylanase in Bacillus megaterium and its applications to biobleaching of cotton stalk pulp and saccharification of recycled paper sludge

A xylanase gene (xynG1-1) from Paenibacillus campinasensis G1-1 was expressed in Bacillus megaterium MS941 and a high level of extracellular xylansae activity (304.26 IU/mL) was achieved after induction with 0.5% xylose. The purified recombinant xylanase (XynG1-1R) revealed optimal activity at 60 °C and pH 7.0 and retained 79% and 81% activity after incubation without substrate at 60 °C, pH 5.0 and pH 8.0 for 3 h, respectively. Application of XynG1-1R (15 IU/g pulp) to cotton stalk pulp bleaching increased brightness by 3.65% over that of the control without the xylanase and reduced the need for chlorine compounds by 50% without loss of brightness and pulp fiber qualities. When XynG1-1R (80 IU/g paper sludge) was used in combination with mixed cellulolytic enzymes, the saccharification efficiency of recycled paper sludge was increased by 10%. These results indicated that XynG1-1R is a promising candidate for various industrial applications such as biobleaching and bioenergy conversion.