Engineering Microbial Consortia for Bioconversion of Multisubstrate Biomass Streams to Biofuels

Production of biofuels from nonfood biomass has emerged as a sustainable option to address the problems associated with growing enery demand for transportation, heating, and industrial processes, in the context of diminishing petroleum reserves and global climate change. Biomass resources such as lignocellulose-rich biomass and microalgae, despite being abundant pose several challenges for efficient bioconversion to biofuels. Major challenges that must be addressed are the chemical complexity of the biomass and the associated feedstock variability. In this chapter, the role of microbial consortium-based biocatalysis strategies that are being developed to address these issues are reviewed and discussed. Microbial coculture biocatalysts are systems that are engineered to specialize in the conversion of a general class of substrates present in the biomass hydrolysates into biofuel intermediates, providing the capability of adapting to the variable composition of the feedstock. The techniques being developed to understand the interactions between the members of the bioconversion consortia and the corresponding population dynamics of the engineered cocultures are also discussed.