Strain Improvement of Yeast for Ethanol Production Using a Combined Treatment of Electric Field and Chemical Mutagen N-Methyl-N'-nitro-N- nitrosoguanidine

The feasibility of using combined treatments of electric field and chemical mutagen N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitroso-guanidine (NTG) for the strain improvement of Saccharomyces sp. in ethanol production was examined. The treatment of electric field alone resulted in no effect on the lethality of yeast cells under the conditions of this study. However, when the electric field was applied together to the treatment of yeast cells with NTG, the electric field increased the lethal effect and auxotrophic mutation rate of NTG. The combined treatment of electric field and NTG also increased the chances of. obtaining superior yeast strains for the ethanol production from tapioca. A higher number of improved clones was obtained by the combined treatments of electric field and NTG than by the NTG treatment alone. The best clone, NF 30-9, which was also obtained by the combined treatment, produced $11.07\%$ (w/v) ethanol from tapioca slurry containing 25% (w/v) reducing sugar while the parental strain produced 9.77% (w/v).