Zymomonas mobilis for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals

Zymomonas mobilis is a promising organism for the production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass as it natively produces ethanol at high yields and at rates far greater than other microorganisms, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This makes Z. Mobilis attractive not only for ethanol production but potentially other products as well. One limitation of Z. Mobilis is that it cannot natively ferment the pentose sugars, xylose and arabinose, present in lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Over the past few decades, a number of strains have been engineered that produce ethanol from lignocellulosic sugars. While many advances have been made, many challenges still remain. This chapter reviews the basic physiology of Z. Mobilis and the numerous efforts devoted to engineering strains capable of producing ethanol and other chemicals from lignocellulosic sugars.