Starch utilization

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been engineered to express the a-amylase and glucoamylase enzymes from the filamentous fungus Aspergillus shirousamii (Shiuya et al., 1992) and has shown a high level of enzyme activity with starch as a substrate. Other constructs have been made with enzymes from Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus awamori and mouse pancreatic a-amylase (Birol et al., 1998). Ethanol production levels in starch and glucose-containing media were found to be comparable.