Analysing the evolution of methylglyoxal reductases(MGR)enzymes and their relationship with xylose fermentation in yeasts

• Grant number: 19/14725-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2019
• End date: January 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Gonçalo Amarante Guimarães Pereira
• Grantee: Duguay Rodrigues Monteiro da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

As a consequence of the recent industrialization process in our planet history, there has been a increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in our planet atmosphere in detriment of that there is a growing investment in the development of renewable energies. A major target in Brazil in this area is the second generation (2G) ethanol that aims the use of sugarcane biomass in the ethanol production. To make feasible the 2G ethanol production, we need yeasts that are capable of fermenting the sugar pentoses like xylose(the most abundant pentose in sugarcanes. Previous researches had identified evidences of natural selection in a group of enzymes that could be necessary for the effective xylose fermentation in yeasts, so this work main objective is to understand the evolutive processes that are acting in these enzymes, with the goal of search for copies that suffered neofuncionalization. So these acknowledgements could be applied to the second generation ethanol production process in the sugar and alcohol industries. (AU)