Production of cellulosic ethanol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae heterologous expressing Clostridium thermocellum endoglucanase and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera beta-glucosidase genes.

Heterologous secretory expression of endoglucanase E (Clostridium thermocellum) and beta-glucosidase 1 (Saccharomycopsis fibuligera) was achieved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation cultures as an alpha-mating factor signal peptide fusion, based on the native enzyme coding sequence. Ethanol production depends on simultaneous saccharification of cellulose to glucose and fermentation of glucose to ethanol by a recombinant yeast strain as a microbial biocatalyst. Recombinant yeast strain expressing endoglucanase and beta-glucosidase was able to produce ethanol from beta-glucan, CMC and acid swollen cellulose. This indicates that the resultant yeast strain of this study acts efficiently as a whole cell biocatalyst.