Development of Cellobiose-utilizing Recombinant Yeast for Ethanol Production from Cellulose Hydrolyzate

A cellobiose-utilizing recombinant yeast having $\beta$-glucosidase activity was developed for ethanol production from a mixture of glucose and cellobiose. Using $\delta$-sequences of Tyl transposon of yeast as target sites for homologous recombination, a heterologous gene of $\beta$-glucosidase was integrated into the chromosome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The $\delta$-integrated recombinant yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae L2612 (Pb-BGL), showed perfect mitotic stability even in nonselective media and showed ca. 1.5 fold higher $\beta$-glucosidase activity than the recombinant yeast harboring the $2\mu$-based plasmid vector system. A mathematical model was developed to describe the $\beta$-glucosidase formation and ethanol production from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae L2612 ($p\delta-BGL$). The model newly described that the heterologous $\beta$-glucosidase production mediated by ADH1 promoter is regulated by glucose and repressed by ethanol.