BACKGROUND The production of ethanol and other fuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic materials is dependent of efficient xylose conversion. Xylose fermentation capacity in yeasts is usually linked to xylose reductase (XR) accepting NADH as cofactor. The XR from Scheffersomyces stipitis, which is able to use NADH as cofactor but still prefers NADPH, has been used to generate recombinant xylos...

BACKGROUND The production of bioethanol from lignocellulose hydrolysates requires a robust, D-xylose-fermenting and inhibitor-tolerant microorganism as catalyst. The purpose of the present work was to develop such a strain from a prime industrial yeast strain, Ethanol Red, used for bioethanol production. RESULTS An expression cassette containing 13 genes including Clostridium phytofermentans ...

BACKGROUND The methylotrophic yeast, Hansenula polymorpha is an industrially important microorganism, and belongs to the best studied yeast species with well-developed tools for molecular research. The complete genome sequence of the strain NCYC495 of H. polymorpha is publicly available. Some of the well-studied strains of H. polymorpha are known to ferment glucose, cellobiose and xylose to eth...

D-Ribose is a value-added five-carbon sugar used for riboflavin production. To investigate the effects of oxygen supply and mixed sugar concentration on microbial production of D-ribose, a transketolase-deficient Bacillus subtilis SPK1 was cultured batch-wise using xylose and glucose. A change of agitation speed from 300 rpm to 600 rpm at 1 vvm of air supply increased both the xylose consumptio...

Xylonate is a valuable chemical for versatile applications. Although the chemical synthesis route and microbial conversion pathway were established decades ago, no commercial production of xylonate has been obtained so far. In this study, the industrially important microorganism Escherichia coli was engineered to produce xylonate from xylose. Through the coexpression of a xylose dehydrogenase (...

The biocatalytic reduction of D-xylose to xylitol requires separation of the substrate from L-arabinose, another major component of hemicellulosic hydrolysate. This step is necessitated by the innate promiscuity of xylose reductases, which can efficiently reduce L-arabinose to L-arabinitol, an unwanted byproduct. Unfortunately,due to the epimeric nature of D-xylose and L-arabinose, separation c...

BACKGROUND Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) has been recognized as a feasible option for ethanol production from xylose-rich lignocellulosic materials. To reach high ethanol concentration in the broth, a high content of water-insoluble solids (WIS) is needed, which creates mixing problems and, furthermore, may decrease xylose uptake. Feeding of substrate has already been...

This research examined the titers of hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), and xylulokinase (XUK) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and two xylose fermenting yeasts, Pachysolen tannophilus and Candida shehatae, following shifts in carbon source and aeration. Xylose-grown C. shehatae, glucose-grown P. tannophilus, and glucose-grown S. cerevisiae, had the highest specific activities of XUK, HK, a...

The various strains of Scheffersomyces stipitis (Pichia stipitis) differ substantially with respect to their ability to ferment xylose into ethanol. Two P. stipitis strains CBS 5773 and CBS 6054 have been most often used in literature but comparison of their performance in xylose fermentation under identical conditions has not been reported so far. Conversion of xylose (22 g/L) by each of these...

BACKGROUND Two heterologous pathways have been used to construct recombinant xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains: i) the xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) pathway and ii) the xylose isomerase (XI) pathway. In the present study, the Pichia stipitis XR-XDH pathway and the Piromyces XI pathway were compared in an isogenic strain background, using a laboratory hos...