Kluyveromyces marxianus: K. marxianus parental (SLP1) and K. marxianus adapted (P8)

However, achieving high ethanol produc-tivities implies overcoming several biotechnological challenges as the cellular inhibition caused by the inhibitors present in the medium. In this work, the adaptation of K. marxianus SLP1 to increase the tolerance to a mix of inhibitory compounds was carried out using the adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) strategy.

As a result of the ALE adaptation process, an improved K. marxianus strain (P8) was obtained after 8 serial passes. The fermentative and physiological parameters evidenced a better response of the P8 strain against the synergistic effect of multiple inhibitors. The P8 strain reduced the lag phase from 12 to 4 h, increasing 40% the biomass and improving 16-fold the volumetric eth-anol productivity.