Construction of a Recombinant S. cerevisiae Expressing a Fusion Protein and Study on the Effect of Converting Xylose and Glucose to Ethanol

Gene XYL1 from Candida shehatae and gene XYL2 from Pichia stipitis were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the two genes were both placed under the strong promoter of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) of plasmid pAD2 to produce the recombinant expression vector pAD2-P12. Because the amplified XYL1 fragment lacks the stop codon UAA, the polypeptide expressed in yeast cells should be a fusion protein, which is a fusion of xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase. Subsequently, the pAD2-P12 vector was transformed into Saccharomyces cerevisiae YS58 to produce a recombinant S. cerevisiae YS58-12. It was indicated that S. cerevisiae YS58-12 has the ability of metabolizing xylose to produce ethanol by fermentation experiment. The result of cofermentation of glucose and xylose by using this recombinant S. cerevisiae YS58-12 showed a relatively satisfactory result. The highest percentage of xylose consumption rate reached 81.3% and the ethanol yield was equal to 67.14% of the ideal value.