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Developing symbiotic consortia for lignocellulosic biofuel production

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Abstract

The search for petroleum alternatives has motivated intense research into biological breakdown of lignocellulose to produce liquid fuels such as ethanol. Degradation of lignocellulose for biofuel production is a difficult process which is limited by, among other factors, the recalcitrance of lignocellulose and biological toxicity of the products. Consolidated bioprocessing has been suggested as an efficient and economical method of producing low value products from lignocellulose; however, it is not clear whether this would be accomplished more efficiently with a single organism or community of organisms. This review highlights examples of mixtures of microbes in the context of conceptual models for developing symbiotic consortia for biofuel production from lignocellulose. Engineering a symbiosis within consortia is a putative means of improving both process efficiency and stability relative to monoculture. Because microbes often interact and exist attached to surfaces, quorum sensing and biofilm formation are also discussed in terms of consortia development and stability. An engineered, symbiotic culture of multiple organisms may be a means of assembling a novel combination of metabolic capabilities that can efficiently produce biofuel from lignocellulose.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank T.K. Wood at The Pennsylvania State University for his assistance in initial drafts of this work. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant no. DGE-0750756. The authors also acknowledge the financial support to T.R. Zuroff from the John D. and Jeanette McWhirter Fellowship from the Pennsylvania State University Department of Chemical Engineering.

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The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 158 Fenske Laboratory, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Trevor R. Zuroff & Wayne R. Curtis

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Zuroff, T.R., Curtis, W.R. Developing symbiotic consortia for lignocellulosic biofuel production. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 93, 1423–1435 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3762-9

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