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National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 32(108), p. 13212-13217, 2011

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1103039108

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Comparative genomics of xylose-fermenting fungi for enhanced biofuel production

Journal article published in 2011 by Alan Kuo, Dana J.; Kuo Alan; Sato Trey K.; Potts Katlyn M.; Salamov Asaf A.; LaButti Kurt M.; Sun Hui; Clum Alicia; Pangilinan Jasmyn L.; Lindquist Erika A.; Lucas Susan; Lapidus Alla; Jin Mingjie; Gunawan Christa; Balan Venkatesh; Dale Bruce E.; Jeffries Thomas W.; Wohlbach, Trey K. Sato, Katlyn M. Potts, Asaf A. Salamov, Kurt M. LaButti, Hui Sun, Alicia Clum, Jasmyn L. Pangilinan, Erika A. Lindquist, Susan Lucas, Alla Lapidus, Mingjie Jin ORCID, Christa Gunawan, Venkatesh Balan and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Cellulosic biomass is an abundant and underused substrate for biofuel production. The inability of many microbes to metabolize the pentose sugars abundant within hemicellulose creates specific challenges for microbial biofuel production from cellulosic material. Although engineered strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae can use the pentose xylose, the fermentative capacity pales in comparison with glucose, limiting the economic feasibility of industrial fermentations. To better understand xylose utilization for subsequent microbial engineering, we sequenced the genomes of two xylose-fermenting, beetle-associated fungi, Spathaspora passalidarum and Candida tenuis . To identify genes involved in xylose metabolism, we applied a comparative genomic approach across 14 Ascomycete genomes, mapping phenotypes and genotypes onto the fungal phylogeny, and measured genomic expression across five Hemiascomycete species with different xylose-consumption phenotypes. This approach implicated many genes and processes involved in xylose assimilation. Several of these genes significantly improved xylose utilization when engineered into S. cerevisiae , demonstrating the power of comparative methods in rapidly identifying genes for biomass conversion while reflecting on fungal ecology.