Influence of inhibitory compounds and minor sugars on xylitol production by Debaryomyces hansenii

To obtain in-depth information on the overall metabolic behavior of the new good xylitol producer Debaryomyces hansenii UFV-170, batch bioconversions were carried out using semisynthetic media with compositions simulating those of typical acidic hemicellulose hydrolysates of sugarcane bagasse. For this purpose, we used media containing glucose (4.3-6.5 g/L), xylose (60.1-92.1 g/L), or arabinose (5.9-9.2 g/L), or binary or ternary mixtures of them in either the presence or absence of typical inhibitors of acidic hydrolysates, such as furfural (1.0-5.0 g/L), hydroxymethylfurfural (0.01-0.30 g/L), acetic acid (0.5-3.0 g/L), and vanillin (0.5-3.0 g/L). D. hansenii exhibited a good tolerance to high sugar concentrations as well as to the presence of inhibiting compounds in the fermentation media. It was able to produce xylitol only from xylose, arabitol from arabinose, and no glucitol from glucose. Arabinose metabolization was incomplete, while ethanol was mainly produced from glucose and, to a lesser less extent, from xylose and arabinose. The results suggest potential application of this strain in xyloseto-xylitol bioconversion from complex xylose media from lignocellulosic materials.