Cellulosic ethanol production by consortia of Scheffersomyces stipitis and engineered Zymomonas mobilis

Background As one of the clean and sustainable energies, lignocellulosic ethanol has achieved much attention around the world. The production of lignocellulosic ethanol does not compete with people for food, while the consumption of ethanol could contribute to the carbon dioxide emission reduction. However, the simultaneous transformation of glucose and xylose to ethanol is one of the key technologies for attaining cost-efficient lignocellulosic ethanol production at an industrial scale. Genetic modification of strains and constructing consortia were two approaches to resolve this issue. Compared with strain improvement, the synergistic interaction of consortia in metabolic pathways should be more useful than using each one separately. Results In this study, the consortia consisting of suspended Scheffersomyces stipitis CICC1960 and Zymomonas mobilis 8b were cultivated to successfully depress carbon catabolite repression (CCR) in artificially simulated 80G40XRM. With this strategy, a 5.52% more xylose consumption and a 6.52% higher ethanol titer were achieved by the consortium, in which the inoculation ratio between S. stipitis and Z. mobilis was 1:3, compared with the Z. mobilis 8b mono-fermentation. Subsequently, one copy of the xylose metabolic genes was inserted into the Z. mobilis 8b genome to construct Z. mobilis FR2, leading to the xylose final-consumption amount and ethanol titer improvement by 15.36% and 6.81%, respectively. Finally, various corn stover hydrolysates with different sugar concentrations (glucose and xylose 60, 90, 120 g/L), were used to evaluate the fermentation performance of the consortium consisting of S. stipitis CICC1960 and Z. mobilis FR2. Fermentation results showed that a 1.56–4.59% higher ethanol titer was achieved by the consortium compared with the Z. mobilis FR2 mono-fermentation, and a 46.12–102.14% higher ethanol titer was observed in the consortium fermentation when compared with the S. stipitis CICC1960 mono-fermentation. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis of xylose/glucose transporter and other genes responsible for CCR explained the reason why the initial ratio inoculation of 1:3 in artificially simulated 80G40XRM had the best fermentation performance in the consortium. Conclusions The fermentation strategy used in this study, i.e., using a genetically modified consortium, had a superior performance in ethanol production, as compared with the S. stipitis CICC1960 mono-fermentation and the Z. mobilis FR2 mono-fermentation alone. This result showed that this strategy has potential for future lignocellulosic ethanol production.