Home • Candida arabinofermentans NRRL YB-2248 v1.0
Candida arabinofermentans photo

The white bar indicates scale: 10 micrometers

Photo credit: Dr. Marc-Andre Lachance, University of Western Ontario

Candida arabinofermentans has been sequenced because it is one of only three yeasts known to produce significant amounts of ethanol from arabinose (1).  The others include Ambrosiozyma monospora (2) and a recently described Candida species (3).  As such C. arabinofermentans may serve as a source of genes for fermentation of L-arabinose that can be transferred to yeasts that strongly ferment xylose.  Even though a few xylose-fermenting yeasts will grow on arabinose, the more commonly studied xylose fermenting yeast such as Scheffersomyces (Pichia) stipitis will not ferment this sugar.  L-arabinose metabolism in yeast proceeds through a two-step oxidoreductase pathway similar to that described for Aspergillus (4).  Arabinose metabolism has been engineered into Saccharomyces cerevisiae using both bacterial (5, 6) and fungal (7) routes and fungal transporters for L-arabinose have been cloned (2).  The taxonomic classification of C. arabinofermentans is not well understood (1, 8), but it is likely that the capacity for L-arabinose fermentation is strain specific.

Genome Reference(s)

Please cite the following publication(s) if you use the data from this genome in your research:

Riley R, Haridas S, Wolfe KH, Lopes MR, Hittinger CT, Göker M, Salamov AA, Wisecaver JH, Long TM, Calvey CH, Aerts AL, Barry KW, Choi C, Clum A, Coughlan AY, Deshpande S, Douglass AP, Hanson SJ, Klenk HP, LaButti KM, Lapidus A, Lindquist EA, Lipzen AM, Meier-Kolthoff JP, Ohm RA, Otillar RP, Pangilinan JL, Peng Y, Rokas A, Rosa CA, Scheuner C, Sibirny AA, Slot JC, Stielow JB, Sun H, Kurtzman CP, Blackwell M, Grigoriev IV, Jeffries TW
Comparative genomics of biotechnologically important yeasts.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Aug 30;113(35):9882-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1603941113

 

References


  1. Kurtzman CP & Dien BS (1998) Candida arabinofermentans, a new L-arabinose fermenting yeast. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek International Journal of General and Molecular Microbiology 74(4):237-243.
  2. Verho R, Penttila M, & Richard P (2011) Cloning of Two Genes (LAT1,2) Encoding Specific L-Arabinose Transporters of the L-Arabinose Fermenting Yeast Ambrosiozyma monospora. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 164(5):604-611.
  3. Watanabe I, Ando A, & Nakamura T (2011) Characterization of Candida sp. NY7122, a novel pentose-fermenting soil yeast. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol.
  4. Mojzita D, Penttila M, & Richard P (2010) Identification of an L-Arabinose Reductase Gene in Aspergillus niger and Its Role in L-Arabinose Catabolism. Journal of Biological Chemistry 285(31):23622-23628.
  5. Becker J & Boles E (2003) A modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that consumes L-arabinose and produces ethanol. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 69(7):4144-4150.
  6. Boles E & Becker J (2003) Construction of an L-arabinose fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain by genetic engineering and evolutive screening. Yeast 20:S213-S213.
  7. Bera AK, Sedlak M, Khan A, & Ho NWY (2010) Establishment of l-arabinose fermentation in glucose/xylose co-fermenting recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A(LNH-ST) by genetic engineering. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 87(5):1803-1811.
  8. Rivera FN, et al. (2009) Gut-associated yeast in bark beetles of the genus Dendroctonus Erichson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 98(2):325-342.