Fermentation Technology

Abstract

Alcohol Consumption and Tolerance of Neurospora crassa

Hui Lin, Rebeccah A. Warmack, Shuangyan Han, Takao Kasuga and Zhiliang Fan

The alcohol consumption and tolerance of the ascomycete Neurospora crassa was investigated in this study. This fungus is able to utilize both native alcohol and non-native alcohols as carbon sources, yet little is known about the enzymes involved in these processes. The deletion of alcohol dehydrogenase 1 gene (adh-1) from the genome can efficiently prohibit both ethanol and isobutanol metabolism, while the deletion of the alcohol dehydrogenase 3 gene (adh-3) does not have an observable effect on the prevention of alcohol consumption. Both wild type N. crassa and the N. crassa Δadh-1 strain can tolerate up to 48 g/L ethanol and 8.5 g/L isobutanol when grown on glucose or Avicel.