Isolation and Characterization of Ethanol-Producing Schizosaccharomyces pombe CHFY0201

An ethanol-producing yeast strain, CHFY0201, was isolated from soil in South Korea using an enrichment technique in a yeast peptone dextrose medium supplemented with 5% (w/v) ethanol at $30^{\circ}C$. The phenotypic and physiological characteristics, as well as molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit (26S) rDNA gene and the internally transcribed spacer (ITS) 1+2 regions, suggested that the CHFY0201 was a novel strain of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. During shaking flask cultivation, the highest ethanol productivity and theoretical yield of S. pombe CHFY0201 in YPD media containing 9.5% total sugars were $0.59{\pm}0.01$ g/l/h and $88.4{\pm}0.91%$, respectively. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation for ethanol production was carried out using liquefied cassava (Manihot esculenta) powder in a 5-l lab-scale jar fermenter at $32^{\circ}C$ for 66 h with an agitation speed of 120 rpm. Under these conditions, S. pombe CHFY0201 yielded a final ethanol concentration of $72.1{\pm}0.27$ g/l and a theoretical yield of $82.7{\pm}1.52%$ at a maximum ethanol productivity of $1.16{\pm}0.07$ g/l/h. These results suggest that S. pombe CHFY0201 is a potential producer for industrial bioethanol production.