A method of producing an
alcohol or
alcohol precursor from a cellulosic material and a genetically modified live ethanologenic
organism, wherein the method comprises the steps of:exposing said genetically modified live ethanologenic
organism to a culture media with a pH of between 2 and 9 thereby creating an incubation mixture;exposing said incubation mixture to a source of
cellulose;incubating said genetically modified live ethanologenic
organism in said incubation mixture with said source of
cellulose under aerobic and / or anaerobic conditions at a temperature
ranging from 0° C. to 60° C. for a first period of time sufficient for the degradation of
cellulose, thereby creating a degraded cellulose mixture;optionally, incubating said genetically modified live ethanologenic organism in said degraded cellulose mixture under aerobic and / or anaerobic conditions at a temperature
ranging from 0° C. to 60° C. for a second period of time sufficient for the production of said
alcohol or alcohol precursor; andoptionally, recovering said alcohol or alcohol precursor from the cells and / or spent culture media.wherein said genetically modified live ethanologenic organism comprises at least one of the following
polynucleotide sequences in its
genome:i. at least one endoglucanase (cen-like)
polynucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of an endoglucanase A-like (cenA-like)
polynucleotide sequence, an endoglucanase B-like (cenB-like) polynucleotide sequence and an endoglucanase C-like (cenC-like) polynucleotide sequence;ii. an exoglucanase (cex-like) polynucleotide sequence; andiii. a β-
glucosidase 1 (bgl1) polynucleotide sequence;wherein said source of cellulose has a
lignin content of at most 1 wt. % and a
hemicellulose content of at most 15 wt. %, and wherein said live ethanologenic organism belongs to a
genus is selected from the group consisting of:
Aspergillus,
Mucor,
Zymomonas,
Escherichia,
Clostridia, Bacillus, and
Pseudomonas.