• Energy Research

Construction of acid-tolerant strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for various bioproduction processes. We previously isolated the gene IoGAS1 from multiple stress-tolerant Issatchenkia orientalis as a gene conferring sulfuric acid resistance in S. cerevisiae, but its acid tolerance was only investigated using sulfuric acid. Here, we evaluated the growth and ethanol fermentation ability of the IoGAS1-expressing S. cerevisiae strain, B4-IoGAS1, by using various acidic reagents. B4-IoGAS1 exhibited faster growth than the control strain, B4-CON, when cultured aerobically with sulfuric, hydrochloric, formic, acetic, and lactic acids at pH below 2.4. However, the growth of B4-IoGAS1 was suppressed at pH above 2.48, irrespective of the type of acid reagents. Furthermore, B4-IoGAS1 exhibited higher performance of ethanol fermentation than B4-CON under 250 mM lactic acid condition at pH 2.37. These results demonstrate that IoGAS1 could facilitate the aerobic growth and anaerobic ethanol production under different acidic stressed conditions.

The yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus is considered as a potential alternative to Saccharomyces cerevisiae in producing ethanol as a biofuel. In this study, we investigated the ethanol fermentation properties of novel K. marxianus strain DMB1, isolated from bagasse hydrolysates. This strain utilized sorbitol as well as various pentoses and hexoses as single carbon sources under aerobic conditions and produced ethanol from glucose in hydrolysates of the Japanese cedar at 42 °C. Reference strains K. marxianus NBRC1777 and S. cerevisiae BY4743 did not assimilate sorbitol or ferment lignocellulosic hydrolysates to ethanol at this temperature. Thus strain DMB1 appears to be optimal for producing bioethanol at high temperatures, and might provide a valuable means of increasing the efficiency of ethanol fermentation.

We prepared eight recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisae strains, including three strains generated in this study that were produced by chromosomal integration of xylose utilization pathway enzymes genes. Among these strains, MA-R4 was the most efficient at producing ethanol from rice straw enzymatic hydrolysate, indicating that it is a superior strain for bioethanol production.

Ethanol production from xylose is important for the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass as raw materials. Recently, we reported the development of an industrial xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, MA-R4, which was engineered by chromosomal integration to express the genes encoding xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase from Pichia stipitis along with S. cerevisiae xylulokinase gene constitutively using the alcohol-fermenting flocculent yeast strain, IR-2. IR-2 has the highest xylulose-fermenting ability of the industrial diploid strains, making it a useful host strain for genetically engineering xylose-utilizing S. cerevisiae. To optimize the activities of xylose metabolizing enzymes in the metabolic engineering of IR-2 for further improvement of ethanol production from xylose, we constructed a set of recombinant isogenic strains harboring different combinations of genetic modifications present in MA-R4, and investigated the effect of constitutive expression of xylulokinase and of different levels of xylulokinase and xylose reductase activity on xylose fermentation. This strain comparison showed that constitutive expression of xylulokinase increased ethanol production from xylose at the expense of xylitol excretion, and that high activity of xylose reductase resulted in an increased rate of xylose consumption and an increased glycerol yield. Moreover, strain MA-R6, which has moderate xylulokinase activity, grew slightly better but accumulated more xylitol than strain MA-R4. These results suggest that fine-tuning of introduced enzyme activity in S. cerevisiae is important for improving xylose fermentation to ethanol.

ABSTRACT The recombinant industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain MA-R5 was engineered to express NADP + -dependent xylitol dehydrogenase using the flocculent yeast strain IR-2, which has high xylulose-fermenting ability, and both xylose consumption and ethanol production remarkably increased. Furthermore, the MA-R5 strain produced the highest ethanol yield (0.48 g/g) from nonsulfuric acid hydrolysate of wood chips.

The activity of transaldolase and transketolase, key enzymes in the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, is rate-limiting for xylose utilization in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Overexpression of TAL1 and TKL1, the major transaldolase and transketolase genes, increases the flux from the pentose phosphate pathway into the glycolytic pathway. However, the functional roles of NQM1 and TKL2, the secondary transaldolase and transketolase genes, especially in xylose utilization, remain unclear. This study focused on characterization of NQM1 and TKL2, together with TAL1 and TKL1, regarding their roles in xylose utilization and fermentation. Knockout or overexpression of these four genes on the phenotype of xylose-utilizing S. cerevisiae strains was also examined. Transcriptional analysis indicated that the expression of TAL1, NQM1, and TKL1 was up-regulated in the presence of xylose. A significant decrease in both growth on xylose and xylose-fermenting ability in tal1Δ and tkl1Δ mutants confirmed that TAL1 and TKL1 are essential for xylose assimilation and fermentation. Gene disruption analysis using a tkl1Δ mutant revealed that TKL1 is also required for utilization of glucose. Growth on xylose and xylose-fermenting ability were slightly influenced by deletion of NQM1 or TKL2 when xylose was used as the sole carbon source. Moreover, the rate of xylose consumption and ethanol production was slightly impaired in TKL1- and TKL2-overexpressing strains. NQM1 and TKL2 may thus play a physiological role via an effect on the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway in the xylose metabolic pathway, although their roles in xylose utilization and fermentation are less important than those of TAL1 and TKL1.

Antarctic basidiomycetous yeast Mrakia blollopis SK-4 has unique fermentability for various sugars under a low temperature condition. Hence, this yeast was used for ethanol fermentation from glucose and also for direct ethanol fermentation (DEF) from cellulosic biomass without/with Tween 80 at 10°C. Maximally, 48.2 g/l ethanol was formed from 12% (w/v) glucose. DEF converted filter paper, Japanese cedar and Eucalyptus to 12.2 g/l, 12.5 g/l and 7.2 g/l ethanol, respectively. In the presence of 1% (v/v) Tween 80, ethanol concentration increased by about 1.1-1.6-fold compared to that without Tween 80. This is the first report on DEF using cryophilic fungi under a low temperature condition. We consider that M. blollopis SK-4 has a good potential for ethanol fermentation in cold environments.

Construction of xylose- and xylo-oligosaccharide-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains is important, because hydrolysates derived from lignocellulosic biomass contain significant amounts of these sugars. We have obtained recombinant S. cerevisiae strain MA-D4 (D-XKXDHXR), expressing xylose reductase, xylitol dehydrogenase and xylulokinase. In the present study, we generated recombinant strain D-XSD/XKXDHXR by transforming MA-D4 with a β-xylosidase gene cloned from the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. The intracellular β-xylosidase-specific activity of D-XSD/XKXDHXR was high, while that of the control strain was under the limit of detection. D-XSD/XKXDHXR produced ethanol, and xylose accumulated in the culture supernatant under fermentation in a medium containing xylo-oligosaccharides as sole carbon source. β-Xylosidase-specific activity in D-XSD/XKXDHXR declined due to xylose both in vivo and in vitro. D-XSD/XKXDHXR converted xylo-oligosaccharides in an enzymatic hydrolysate of eucalyptus to ethanol. These results indicate that D-XSD/XKXDHXR efficiently converted xylo-oligosaccharides to xylose and subsequently to ethanol.

There has been much research on the bioconversion of xylose found in lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol by genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, the rate of ethanol production from xylose in these xylose-utilizing yeast strains is quite low compared to their glucose fermentation. In this study, two diploid xylose-utilizing S. cerevisiae strains, the industrial strain MA-R4 and the laboratory strain MA-B4, were employed to investigate the differences between anaerobic fermentation of xylose and glucose, and general differences between recombinant yeast strains, through genome-wide transcription analysis.In MA-R4, many genes related to ergosterol biosynthesis were expressed more highly with glucose than with xylose. Additionally, these ergosterol-related genes had higher transcript levels in MA-R4 than in MA-B4 during glucose fermentation. During xylose fermentation, several genes related to central metabolic pathways that typically increase during growth on non-fermentable carbon sources were expressed at higher levels in both strains. Xylose did not fully repress the genes encoding enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid and respiratory pathways, even under anaerobic conditions. In addition, several genes involved in spore wall metabolism and the uptake of ammonium, which are closely related to the starvation response, and many stress-responsive genes mediated by Msn2/4p, as well as trehalose synthase genes, increased in expression when fermenting with xylose, irrespective of the yeast strain. We further observed that transcript levels of genes involved in xylose metabolism, membrane transport functions, and ATP synthesis were higher in MA-R4 than in MA-B4 when strains were fermented with glucose or xylose.Our transcriptomic approach revealed the molecular events underlying the response to xylose or glucose and differences between MA-R4 and MA-B4. Xylose-utilizing S. cerevisiae strains may recognize xylose as a non-fermentable carbon source, which induces a starvation response and adaptation to oxidative stress, resulting in the increased expression of stress-response genes.