Recombinant endoxylanases and related compositions and methods of use

A method of producing value-added products from agricultural biomass, the method comprising:

• providing an agricultural biomass, wherein the agricultural biomass comprises cellobiose and xylan;
• adding a culture of a xylose producer to the agricultural biomass, wherein the xylose producer is a recombinant bacteria engineered to produce xylose from hydrolyzing the agricultural biomass, wherein the recombinant bacteria is Bacillus subtilis, wherein the recombinant bacteria comprises a plasmid comprising a sequence encoding a B. subtilis YwmC signal peptide and a sequence encoding an endoxylanase from Bacillus pumilus, wherein the sequence encoding the signal peptide is upstream of the sequence encoding the endoxylanase, thereby producing a recombinant endoxylanase modified with the signal peptide, and wherein the amino acid sequence of the endoxylanase consists of SEQ ID NO:4;
• and
• adding a culture of a xylose assimilator to the agricultural biomass, wherein the xylose assimilator is a bacterium selected from the group consisting of:
• Escherichia coli, B. coagulans, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus brevis, and Leuconostoc lactis.

A composition comprising:

• recombinant Bacillus subtilis engineered to produce xylose from hydrolyzing agricultural biomass, wherein the recombinant Bacillus subtilis comprises a plasmid comprising a sequence encoding a B. subtilis YwmC signal peptide and a sequence encoding an endoxylanase from Bacillus pumilus, wherein the sequence encoding the signal peptide is upstream of the sequence encoding the endoxylanase, thereby producing a recombinant endoxylanase modified with the signal peptide, and wherein the amino acid sequence of the endoxylanase consists of SEQ ID NO:
• 4;
• and
• a xylose assimilator, wherein the xylose assimilator is a bacterium selected form the group consisting of:
• Escherichia coli, B. coagulans, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus brevis, and Leuconostoc lactis.