The construction of a stable starch-fermenting yeast strain using genetic engineering and rare-mating.

To develop a yeast strain that is able to produce ethanol directly from starch, alpha-amylase cDNA (originated from mouse salivary glands) was introduced into the hyploid Saccharomyces diastiticus cells secreting glucoamylase by using a linearized integrating vector. The integrating vector contains a LEU2 gene and the inside of the LEU2 gene was cut by KpnI to make the linearized vector. One of the transformants exhibited 100% mitotic stability after 100 generations of cell multiplication. To improve its ethanol-fermentability, the haploid transformant was rare-mated with a polyploid industrial strain having no amylase activity. The resulting hybrid RH51 produced 7.5 (w/v) ethanol directly from 20% (w/v) soluble starch and its mitotic stability was 100% at the end of fermentation.