Crop residues are produced in abundance in agriculture and forestry and are a potential source of lignocellulosic biomass for ethanol production. Recent research has included the heterologous expression in transgenic plants of genes encoding cellulases to produce fermentable sugars from plant biomass. In this study, transgenic wheat lines were generated co-expressing the genes for an endoglucanase 1 (E1) of Acidothermus cellulolyticus and cellobiohydrolase 1 (CBH1) of Trichoderma reesei. Both genes were under the control of a wheat Rubisco small subunit promoter (RbcS). Transgenic wheat leaves accumulated apoplast targeted E1 and CBH1 proteins at levels up to 1 and 0.5% respectively of total soluble protein as determined by immunoblotting. Transgenic plants co-expressing E1 and CBH1 were analysed by a 4-methylumbelliferyl-β- D-cellobioside (MUC) assay and enzymatic activity was detected up to 92 nmol 4-MU/mg tsp/min.
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