代谢工程改善野生酵母利用木糖产乙醇的性能

从256个自然样品中筛选得到1株可高效转化D-木糖的酵母。通过生理生化和分子生物学方法鉴定, 证实该菌株是属于Candida tropicalis。以该酵母为研究对象, 增加木糖醇脱氢酶表达量, 通过改变代谢流以达到提高酒精产率的目的。以pXY212-XYL2质粒为基础载体, 构建了含有潮霉素抗性的pYX212-XYL2-Hygro, 电击转化进入野生型C. tropicalis, 潮霉素抗性筛选, 得到含高拷贝木糖醇脱氢酶基因的重组菌株C. tropicalis XYL2-7。重组菌的比酶活达到0.5 u/mg protein, 比原始菌株提高了3倍。实验表明, 重组菌木糖醇得率比原始菌株降低了3倍, 酒精得率提高了5倍。首次通过实验验证了热带假丝酵母利用木糖产乙醇的可行性, 这对研究酵母利用秸秆、麦糠、谷壳等纤维质农业废弃物生产燃料乙醇具有重要启示。

Metabolic Engineering for Improving Ethanol Fermentation of Xylose by Wild Yeast

One yeast strain, which was isolated from 256 natural samples, was found to be able to utilize D-xylose effectively. On the basis of assimilation physiological and molecular biological tests, the yeast strain was identified as a strain of Candida tropicalis. Furthermore, metabolic engineering breeding strategy was applied to change the metabolic flux in order to increase ethanol productivity. In this study, the C. tropicalis was used as the host strain and the plasmid pYX212-XYL2, which was formerly constructed for over expression of XYL2 gene encoding xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) from Pichia stipitis, was used as the backbone of the recombinant vector. A hygro gene was inserted into downstream position of XYL2 gene, meanwhile, the result plasmid pXY212-XYL2-Hygro transformed into C. tropicalis by electroporation. Thus, a recombinant yeast C. tropicalis XYL2-7 was obtained through hygromycin B resistance screening and its specific XDH activity was 0.5 u/mg protein, which was 3 times more than that of the parent strain. Additionally, the recombinant yeast was applied in the fermentation of xylose. Compared with the parent yeast, it was concluded that the xylitol yield in the broth decreased by 3 times, however, the ethanol yield increased by 5 times. The feasibility of ethanol production from xylose by C. tropicalis was firstly studied in this paper. These research results are helpful to advance the bioconversion of renewable resources (e. g. straw, wheat bran, and husk) to fuel ethanol.