Increased Ethanol Productivity in Xylose-Utilizing Saccharomyces cerevisiae via a Randomly Mutagenized Xylose Reductase
Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been genetically engineered to ferment the pentose sugar xylose present in lignocellulose biomass. One of the reactions controlling the rate of xylose utilization is catalyzed by xylose reductase (XR). In particular, the cofactor specificity of XR is not optimized with respect to the downstream pathway, and the reaction rate is insufficient for high xyl