Abstract

Azra Vajzovic, Sharon L. Doty, and Renata Bura

College of Forest Resources, University of Washington

     We studied three naturally occurring yeast strains isolated from poplar trees that have several unique properties beneficial to the bioenergy industry.  The poplar yeast strains can utilize both 5-carbon and 6-carbon sugars while the conventional strain cannot.  Also, the poplar yeast strains grow well in plant homogenate while the conventional S. cerevisiae strain is inhibited by the phytochemicals released in the process. We also found that the poplar yeast strains can grow in medium lacking ammonium and nitrate.  Therefore, culturing of these microorganisms will have a lower cost than conventional strains of S. cerevisiae.  The genome of one of the strains is currently being sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute.