Abstract

Xylose is a major constituent of plant lignocellulose, and its fermentation is important for the bioconversion of plant biomass to fuels and chemicals. Pichia stipitis is a well-studied, native xylose-fermenting yeast. The mechanism and regulation of xylose metabolism in P. stipitis have been characterized and genes from P. stipitis have been used to engineer xylose metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have sequenced and assembled the complete genome of P. stipitis. The sequence data have revealed unusual aspects of genome organization, numerous genes for bioconversion, a preliminary insight into regulation of central metabolic pathways and several examples of colocalized genes with related functions. The genome sequence provides insight into how P. stipitis regulates its redox balance while very efficiently fermenting xylose under microaerobic conditions.

1. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53705, USA.
2. Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 420 Henry Mall, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
3. DOE Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.
4. JGI/Stanford, Stanford Human Genome Center, 975 California Ave., Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.
5. BioTechnology Development Center, Cargill, PO Box 5702, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440-5702, USA.
6. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology Sungkyunkwan Univeristy, Suwon, Korea.
7. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Dept. of Microbiology, Uppsala, Sweden.
8. These authors contributed equally to this study.

Correspondence to: Thomas W Jeffries^1,2,8 e-mail: twjeffri@wisc.edu

Correspondence to: Igor V Grigoriev^3,8 e-mail: ivgrigoriev@lbl.gov

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