Looking beyond Saccharomyces: the potential of non-conventional yeast species for desirable traits in bioethanol fermentation
Review article, 2015

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for millennia in the production of food and beverages and is by far the most studied yeast species. Currently, it is also the most used microorganism in the production of first-generation bioethanol from sugar or starch crops. Second-generation bioethanol, on the other hand, is produced from lignocellulosic feedstocks that are pretreated and hydrolyzed to obtain monomeric sugars, mainly D-glucose, D-xylose and L-arabinose. Recently, S. cerevisiaerecombinant strains capable of fermenting pentose sugars have been generated. However, the pretreatment of the biomass results in hydrolysates with high osmolarity and high concentrations of inhibitors. These compounds negatively influence the fermentation process. Therefore, robust strains with high stress tolerance are required. Up to now, more than 2000 yeast species have been described and some of these could provide a solution to these limitations because of their high tolerance to the most predominant stress conditions present in a second-generation bioethanol reactor. In this review, we will summarize what is known about the non-conventional yeast species showing unusual tolerance to these stresses, namely Zygosaccharomyces rouxii(osmotolerance), Kluyveromyces marxianus and Ogataea (Hansenula) polymorpha(thermotolerance), Dekkera bruxellensis (ethanol tolerance), Pichia kudriavzevii (furan derivatives tolerance) and Z. bailii (acetic acid tolerance).

yeasts

stress tolerance

bioethanol

non-Saccharomyces

phenotype

Author

Dorota Radecka

KU Leuven

VIB

Vaskar Mukherjee

VIB

KU Leuven

Raquel Quintilla Mateo

KU Leuven

VIB

Marija Stojiljkovic

KU Leuven

VIB

María R. Foulquié-Moreno

KU Leuven

VIB

Johan M. Thevelein

KU Leuven

VIB

FEMS Yeast Research

1567-1356 (ISSN) 1567-1364 (eISSN)

Vol. 15 6

Subject Categories

Evolutionary Biology

Industrial Biotechnology

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Bioprocess Technology

Microbiology

Genetics

Areas of Advance

Life Science Engineering (2010-2018)

DOI

10.1093/femsyr/fov053

More information

Latest update

7/13/2022