ABSTRACT
The cellulosic biomass-to-alcohol bioconversion process must become more economical before industry can commercialize this technology on a large scale. Advances in the production of fungal cellulase preparations have stimulated interest in enzyme-based biomass conversion processes. Cellulase biochemistry has reached an enabling phase of development, where combined efforts in biochemistry and molecular biology can deliver engineered cellulase systems for industrial application. As early as 1954, W. Gilligan and E. T. Reese showed that the amount of reducing sugar released from cellulose by the combined fractions of fungal culture filtrate was greater than the sum of the amounts released by the individual fractions. The principle of interspecific ìnterchangeability of cellulase components is the cornerstone of recombinant cellulase system design and construction. If indeed cellulase component enzymes are truly generalized in both structure and function, components may be selected and combined from a wide array of source organisms to form novel enzyme cocktails.
