Characterization of alcohol fermentation and segregation of protoplast fusant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipitis

A study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of segregation and alcohol fermentation of intergeneric fusants. The protoplast fusion of both Pichia stipitis CBS 5776 and Saccharomycess cerevisiae STV 89 was carried out. The fusion frequency was 5 x 10(-8) and among fusants selected, a fusant F5 showed the best results in ethanol production by sucrose and xylose fermentations. The performance of xylose fermentation by this fusant was better than that of P. stipitis CBS 5776 and fusant F5 exhibited sucrose fermentation patterns intermediate to the two parent strains. The fusant F5 was segregated into a pair of parental strains during the several culture passages. In the average, 91% of colonies had a similar characteristics of P. stipitis while 7% of colonies resembled S. cerevisiae. Only 2% of colonies had the characteristics of the original fusants. At the sixth passage, all segregants resembled P. stipitis. From these results it is suggested that intergeneric protoplast fusion led to an integration of S. cerevisiae genes, rather than whole chromosomes, within the entire genome of P. stipitis.