Willem H. van Zyl

TL;DR: A concluding discussion identifies unresolved issues pertaining to microbial cellulose utilization, suggests approaches by which such issues might be resolved, and contrasts a microbially oriented cellulose hydrolysis paradigm to the more conventional enzymatically oriented paradigm in both fundamental and applied contexts.

TL;DR: Progress in developing CBP-enabling microorganisms is being made through two strategies: engineering naturally occurring cellulolytic microorganisms to improve product-related properties, such as yield and titer, and engineering non-cellulolytic organisms that exhibit high product yields and titers to express a heterologous cellulase system enabling cellulose utilization.

TL;DR: This review focuses on progress made toward the development of baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for CBP, and the current status of saccharolytic enzyme expression in S. Cerevisiae to complement its natural fermentative ability is highlighted.

TL;DR: The construction of a yeast strain capable of growth on and one-step conversion of amorphous cellulose to ethanol, representing significant progress towards realization of one- step processing of cellulosic biomass in a consolidated bioprocessing configuration is demonstrated.

TL;DR: In a future outlook iterative strategies involving the techniques of classical breeding, quantitative physiology, proteomics, DNA micro arrays, and genetic engineering are proposed for the development of efficient xylose-fermenting recombinant strains of S. cerevisiae.