| Grant number: | 15/26072-3 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| Start date: | August 01, 2016 |
| End date: | April 30, 2019 |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries |
| Agreement: | Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) |
| Principal Investigator: | Andreas Karoly Gombert |
| Grantee: | José Valdo Madeira Junior |
| Host Institution: | Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 16/23606-0 - Towards a Kluyveromyces marxianus strain suitable for non-aseptic fuel ethanol production at high temperature, BE.EP.PD |
Abstract Fuel ethanol production in Brazil is a well-established industrial process, of major importance for the country's economy and environment. This biofuel may be utilized in pure form in the whole light vehicle fleet equipped with flex motors, besides being added to gasoline in proportions as high as 25%. Considering that Brazil is one of the largest ethanol producers in the world, the use of improved production methods may have big impacts on the economical and environmental sustainability of the process. One such possibility is to perform the fermentation step at high temperatures, using thermotolerant microorganisms. Kluyveromyces marxianus is a particularly interesting yeast, since it presents: high specific growth rates, high temperature tolerance, ability to metabolize a wide variety of sugars, high secretion/excretion rates, and amenability to genetic manipulations. The aim of this study will be to obtain one K. marxianus strain able to grow under fully anaerobic conditions, with high tolerance towards: ethanol (up to 10%), temperatures as high as 48 oC, and low pH (< 2.5). These properties would enable its use in a non-aseptic industrial setup, as commonly carried out in Brazilian sugarcane mills. It is expected that growth under fully anaerobic conditions will be the biggest challenge in this project. Our strategy is structured as follows: 1) first, a screening will be performed with at least 20 K. marxianus strains, with the aim of identifying at least one presenting the properties listed above; 2) In case such a strain is identified immediately, evolutionary engineering will be performed, in order to increase its specific growth rate, which will be followed by genome resequencing and reverse metabolic engineering, in order to identify the relevant traits for anaerobic growth; 3) In case a strain is identified that can grow under anaerobiosis on complex media, but not on synthetic media, medium adjustments will be tried, in order to identify what hinders K. marxianus from growing anaerobically (e.g. redox problems or medium imbalance); 4) In case no strain is identified that can grow anaerobically under any conditions, genomic and transcriptomic analyses will be performed with K. marxianus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in order to identify genes in the latter yeast that could be transferred to the former one, in order to enable its growth under fully anaerobic conditions. (AU) | |
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