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Pectin impacts in plant biomass recalcitrance by affecting the ability of other cell wall components to access enzymatic degradation. Their removal thus has a positive effect on the saccharification of pectin-rich biomass.

Furthermore, the development of environmentally-friendly processes involves reducing water consumption and using high-solids loadings. We therefore compared the action of a pectin lyase and an endopolygalacturonase/pectin methylesterase mixture on citrus peels by varying the amount of water from 95% to 65%.

We showed that reducing the water content decreases the efficiency of pectin-degrading enzymes, more significantly for those catalyzing hydrolysis (polygalacturonase) than for those catalyzing β-elimination (pectin lyase). In parallel, low-field NMR experiments highlighted that solid loading clearly affects water mobility, and that these mobility changes vary depending on the enzyme used. Indeed, pectin lyase leads to less pronounced changes than the endopolygalacturonase/pectin methylesterase mixture.