Cellodextrin Transport in Yeast for Improved Biofuel Production

TLDR

The biofuel industry relies on Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment sugars from cornstarch or sugar cane, but yeast poorly utilizes cellulose‑derived sugars from plant cell walls. Neurospora crassa uses a cellodextrin transport system to grow on cellulose, and yeast engineered with this system efficiently metabolizes cellodextrins, potentially boosting cellulosic biofuel yields. Citation: Galazka et al.

Abstract

Improving Yeast for Biofuel Production The biofuels industry uses the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce ethanol from sugars derived from cornstarch or sugar cane. Plant cell walls are an attractive sugar source; however, yeast does not grow efficiently on cellulose–derived sugars (cellodextrins). Galazka et al. (p. 84 , published online 9 September) now show that a model cellolytic fungus Neurospora crassa relies on a cellodextrin transport system to facilitate growth on cellulose. Yeast reconstituted with this transport system grew efficiently on cellodextrins, which could potentially improve the efficiency of cellulosic biofuel production.