Genome and proteome analysis of industrial fungi

摘要: In order to decrease dependence on petroleum, the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) Office of the Biomass Program (OBP) is investing in research and development to enable its vision of the biorefinery. The biorefinery will decrease the use of petroleum through conversion of biomass such as crops or agricultural waste into fuels and products. How do fungi fit into the biorefinery? Analysis of the “Top Ten” study indicates that nine of the top twelve chemical building blocks are currently produced or may potentially be produced by fungal fermentation processes. However, a significant barrier to the use of bio-based products is the economic feasibility – fuels and products must be price-competitive with those derived from petroleum. An obvious way to decrease the costs of biobased products from fungi is to make fermentation strains more productive and processes more efficient. Traditional strain improvement programs typically span a time scale measured in decades and process development done through the use of batch cultures is extremely labor intensive.