Metabolic engineering of the cellulolytic thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora thermophila to produce ethanol from cellobiose

Abstract

This is the first attempt to engineer the cellulolytic fungus <i>M. thermophila</i> to produce bioethanol from biomass-derived sugars such as glucose and cellobiose. The ethanol production can be improved about 4 times up to 11 grams per liter on cellobiose after a couple of genetic engineering. These results show that <i>M. thermophila</i> is a promising platform for bioethanol production from cellulosic materials in the future.