Arbinose utilization by xylose-fermenting yeasts and fungi.

Various wild-type yeasts and fungi were screened to evaluate their ability to ferment L-arabinose under oxygen-limited conditions when grown in defined minimal media containing mixtures of L-arabinose, D-xylose, and D-glucose. Although all of the yeasts and some of the fungi consumed arabinose, arabinose was not fermented to ethanol by any of the strains tested. Arabitol was the only major product other than cell mass formed from L-arabinose; yeasts converted arabinose to arabitol at high yield. The inability to ferment L-arabinose appears to be a consequence of inefficient or incomplete assimilation pathways for this pentose sugar.