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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bioenergy Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #267052
Title: Improving biomass sugar utilization by engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Author
item MATSUSHIKA, AKINORI - National Institute Of Advanced Industrial Science And Technology (NIAIST)
item Liu, Zonglin
item SAWAYAMA, SHIGEKI - National Institute Of Advanced Industrial Science And Technology (NIAIST)
item Moon, Jaewoong

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2011
Publication Date: 9/19/2011
Citation: Matsushika, A., Liu, Z., Sawayama, S., Moon, J. 2011. Improving biomass sugar utilization by engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In: Liu, Z.L., editor. Microbial Stress Tolerance for Biofuels. Microbiology Monographs No. 22. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. p. 137-160.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The efficient utilization of all available sugars in lignocellulosic biomass, which is more abundant than available commodity crops and starch, represents one of the most difficult technological challenges for the production of bioethanol. The well-studied yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has played a traditional and major role in industrial bioethanol production due to its high fermentation efficiency. Although S. cerevisiae can effectively convert hexose sugars, such as glucose, mannose, and galactose, into ethanol, it is limited to utilize pentose sugars, including xylose and arabinose, leading to low ethanol yields from lignocellulosic biomass. Numerous approaches for enhancing the conversion of pentose sugars to ethanol have been examined, particularly those involving metabolic engineered S. cerevisiae. In this chapter, recent progress in several promising strategies, including genetic recombination of xylose reductase, xylitol dehydrogenase, and xylose isomerase, genetic engineering and evolutionary engineering, characterization of xylose transporters, and approaches toward understanding of molecular mechanisms for xylose utilization are discussed, with particular focus on xylose-utilizing strains of engineered S. cerevisiae.