In the near future, biomass-derived energy is predicted to substantially complement that generated from petroleum. However, certain types of biomass employed as substrates in the microorganism-mediated production of renewable fuelethanol contain significant amounts of the recalcitrant hexose sugar galactose. The consumption of galactose in hexose sugar-fermenting yeasts is often delayed with respect to other sugars, such as glucose and mannose, because of an intrinsic preference for carbon sources requiring less energy in the preparatory reactions preceding glycolysis. This work comprised the search for, and characterization of anethanologenic yeast capable of efficiently assimilating galactose. Screening experiments conducted with wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains identified one isolate (Y-1528) exhibiting exceptionally fast galactose fermentation. The absence of conventional glucose repression, including a preference for galactose as carbon source and notable delays in the utilization of glucose and mannose, was demonstrated in mixed sugar fermentations. Endogenous extracellular glucose was observed during double sugar fermentations of galactose and mannose. This glucose was traced to supplied galactose by radioisotope labeling, suggesting involvement of UDP-galactose 4-epimerase in the responsible reaction mechanism(s).Sub-cellular fractionation was employed in an attempt to ascertain enzyme localization in Y-1528. Fermentations of lignocellulosic substrate mixtures by Y-1528 illustrated better performance than that accomplished by a reference yeast strain, and again showed a preference for galactose. Mixed cultures of Y-1528 and the same reference strain demonstrated accelerated hexose sugar consumption, and no detrimental effects from competition, during synthetic and lignocellulosic substrate fermentations. Glucose repression was absent in mixed culture fermentations. Fermentations of synthetic sugar mixtures augmented with lignocellulosic inhibitory compounds showed Y-1528 to have better performance than a reference yeast strain, despite a global detrimental effect relative to inhibitor-free fermentations. Cell recycle batch fermentations of spent sulfite liquor illustrated the toxic effect of the hardwood variant, as well as a net loss of performance from all strains tested. Y-1528 was taxonomically confirmed as S. cerevisiae. UDP-galactose 4-epimerase chromatographic purification was unsuccessful, but a partial sequence of the enzyme, showing complete identity with type sequence, was obtained by electrophoretic separation, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry. A significantly mutated UDP-galactose 4-epimerase gene was successfully sequenced.

In the near future, biomass-derived energy is predicted to substantially complement that generated from petroleum. However, certain types of biomass employed as substrates in the microorganism-mediated production of renewable fuelethanol contain significant amounts of the recalcitrant hexose sugar galactose. The consumption of galactose in hexose sugar-fermenting yeasts is often delayed with respect to other sugars, such as glucose and mannose, because of an intrinsic preference for carbon sources requiring less energy in the preparatory reactions preceding glycolysis. This work comprised the search for, and characterization of anethanologenic yeast capable of efficiently assimilating galactose. Screening experiments conducted with wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains identified one isolate (Y-1528) exhibiting exceptionally fast galactose fermentation. The absence of conventional glucose repression, including a preference for galactose as carbon source and notable delays in the utilization of glucose and mannose, was demonstrated in mixed sugar fermentations. Endogenous extracellular glucose was observed during double sugar fermentations of galactose and mannose. This glucose was traced to supplied galactose by radioisotope labeling, suggesting involvement of UDP-galactose 4-epimerase in the responsible reaction mechanism(s).Sub-cellular fractionation was employed in an attempt to ascertain enzyme localization in Y-1528. Fermentations of lignocellulosic substrate mixtures by Y-1528 illustrated better performance than that accomplished by a reference yeast strain, and again showed a preference for galactose. Mixed cultures of Y-1528 and the same reference strain demonstrated accelerated hexose sugar consumption, and no detrimental effects from competition, during synthetic and lignocellulosic substrate fermentations. Glucose repression was absent in mixed culture fermentations. Fermentations of synthetic sugar mixtures augmented with lignocellulosic inhibitory compounds showed Y-1528 to have better performance than a reference yeast strain, despite a global detrimental effect relative to inhibitor-free fermentations. Cell recycle batch fermentations of spent sulfite liquor illustrated the toxic effect of the hardwood variant, as well as a net loss of performance from all strains tested. Y-1528 was taxonomically confirmed as S. cerevisiae. UDP-galactose 4-epimerase chromatographic purification was unsuccessful, but a partial sequence of the enzyme, showing complete identity with type sequence, was obtained by electrophoretic separation, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry. A significantly mutated UDP-galactose 4-epimerase gene was successfully sequenced.

In the near future, biomass-derived energy is predicted to substantially complement that generated from petroleum. However, certain types of biomass employed as substrates in the microorganism-mediated production of renewable fuelethanol contain significant amounts of the recalcitrant hexose sugar galactose. The consumption of galactose in hexose sugar-fermenting yeasts is often delayed with respect to other sugars, such as glucose and mannose, because of an intrinsic preference for carbon sources requiring less energy in the preparatory reactions preceding glycolysis. This work comprised the search for, and characterization of anethanologenic yeast capable of efficiently assimilating galactose. Screening experiments conducted with wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains identified one isolate (Y-1528) exhibiting exceptionally fast galactose fermentation. The absence of conventional glucose repression, including a preference for galactose as carbon source and notable delays in the utilization of glucose and mannose, was demonstrated in mixed sugar fermentations. Endogenous extracellular glucose was observed during double sugar fermentations of galactose and mannose. This glucose was traced to supplied galactose by radioisotope labeling, suggesting involvement of UDP-galactose 4-epimerase in the responsible reaction mechanism(s).Sub-cellular fractionation was employed in an attempt to ascertain enzyme localization in Y-1528. Fermentations of lignocellulosic substrate mixtures by Y-1528 illustrated better performance than that accomplished by a reference yeast strain, and again showed a preference for galactose. Mixed cultures of Y-1528 and the same reference strain demonstrated accelerated hexose sugar consumption, and no detrimental effects from competition, during synthetic and lignocellulosic substrate fermentations. Glucose repression was absent in mixed culture fermentations. Fermentations of synthetic sugar mixtures augmented with lignocellulosic inhibitory compounds showed Y-1528 to have better performance than a reference yeast strain, despite a global detrimental effect relative to inhibitor-free fermentations. Cell recycle batch fermentations of spent sulfite liquor illustrated the toxic effect of the hardwood variant, as well as a net loss of performance from all strains tested. Y-1528 was taxonomically confirmed as S. cerevisiae. UDP-galactose 4-epimerase chromatographic purification was unsuccessful, but a partial sequence of the enzyme, showing complete identity with type sequence, was obtained by electrophoretic separation, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry. A significantly mutated UDP-galactose 4-epimerase gene was successfully sequenced. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Cellulose from energy crops or agriculture residues can be utilized as a sustainable energy resource to produce biofuels such as ethanol. The process of converting cellulose into solvents and biofuels requires the saccharification of cellulose into soluble, fermentable sugars. However, challenges to cellulosic biofuel production include increasing the activity of cellulose-degrading enzymes (cellulases) and increasing solvent (ethanol) yield while minimizing the co-production of organic acids. This work applies novel surface analysis techniques and fermentation reactor perturbations to quantify, manipulate, and model enzymatic and metabolic processes critical to the efficient production of cellulosic biofuels. Surface analysis techniques utilizing cellulose thin film as the model substrate are developed to quantify the kinetics of cellulose degradation by cellulase as well as the interactions with cellulase at the interfacial level. Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D) is utilized to monitor the change in mass of model cellulose thin films cast. The time-dependent frequency response of the QCM simultaneously measures both enzyme adsorption and hydrolysis of the cellulose thin film by fungal cellulases, in which a significant reduction in the extent of hydrolysis can be observed with increasing cellobiose concentrations. A mechanistic enzyme reaction scheme is successfully applied to the QCM frequency response for the first time, describing adsorption/desorption and hydrolysis events of the enzyme, inhibitor, and enzyme/inhibitor complexes. The effect of fungal cellulase concentration on hydrolysis is tested using the QCM frequency response of cellulose thin films. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is also applied for the first time to the whole cell cellulases of the bacterium C. thermocellum, where the effect of temperature on hydrolysis activity is quantified. Fermentation of soluble sugars to desirable products requires the optimization of product yield and selectivity of the cellulolytic bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum. Metabolic tools to map the phenotype toward desirable solvent production are developed through environmental perturbation. A significant change in product selectivity toward ethanol production is achieved with exogenous hydrogen and the addition of hydrogenase inhibitors (e.g. methyl viologen). These results demonstrate compensatory product formation in which the shift in metabolic activity can be achieved through environmental perturbation without permanent change in the organism’s genome.