BackgroundThe recalcitrant nature of cellulosic materials and the high cost of enzymes required for efficient hydrolysis are the major impeding steps to their practical usage for ethanol production. Ideally, a recombinant microorganism, possessing the capability to utilize cellulose for simultaneous growth and ethanol production, is of great interest. We have reported recently the use of a yeast consortium for the functional presentation of a mini-cellulosome structure onto the yeast surface by exploiting the specific interaction of different cohesin-dockerin pairs. In this study, we engineered a yeast consortium capable of displaying a functional mini-cellulosome for the simultaneous growth and ethanol production on phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC).ResultsA yeast consortium composed of four different populations was engineered to display a functional mini-cellulosome containing an endoglucanase, an exoglucanase and a β-glucosidase. The resulting consortium was demonstrated to utilize PASC for growth and ethanol production. The final ethanol production of 1.25 g/L corresponded to 87% of the theoretical value and was 3-fold higher than a similar yeast consortium secreting only the three cellulases. Quantitative PCR was used to enumerate the dynamics of each individual yeast population for the two consortia. Results indicated that the slight difference in cell growth cannot explain the 3-fold increase in PASC hydrolysis and ethanol production. Instead, the substantial increase in ethanol production is consistent with the reported synergistic effect on cellulose hydrolysis using the displayed mini-cellulosome.ConclusionsThis report represents a significant step towards the goal of cellulosic ethanol production. This engineered yeast consortium displaying a functional mini-cellulosome demonstrated not only the ability to grow on the released sugars from PASC but also a 3-fold higher ethanol production than a similar yeast consortium secreting only the three cellulases. The use of more complex cellulosomal structures may further improve the overall efficiency for ethanol production.
For the first time, artificial cellulosome structures were created on DNA scaffolds based on zinc finger protein (ZFP)-guided assembly. These resulting two-component cellulosome structures exhibited enhancement in cellulose hydrolysis compared to the non-complexed mixture depending on the number of CBMs and cellulases assembled.
This study provides a detailed investigation into the performance of a stimuli responsive ELP-Z based process for monoclonal antibody (mAb) affinity precipitation. A multidimensional high-throughput screening (HTS) protocol was developed and employed to investigate the effects of a variety of operating conditions on mAb yield and aggregation during the process. Precipitation efficiency of ELP-Z in the absence of mAb was first determined as a function of temperature and sodium sulfate concentration and conditions producing high yields were identified. HTS was then employed to determine appropriate conditions for the initial capture and co-precipitation of mAbs at high yields using ELP-Z. mAb elution from ELP-Z was then examined using HTS and the mAb yields and aggregate content of the overall process were determined. It was observed that mAb aggregation was sensitive primarily to the elution conditions and that this behavior was antibody specific and a strong function of operating temperature and elution pH. Importantly, for both mAbs examined in this study, the results indicated that room temperature operation and appropriate elution pH could be readily employed to produce both high mAb yields and low aggregate content using this approach. This study demonstrates the ability of ELP-Z based affinity precipitation for mAb purification and shows that HTS can be successfully employed to rapidly develop a robust and high yield process.
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