The purpose of study was to compare acetyl-CoA synthetases (ASC1, ACS2) in yeast: Ashbya gossipii, Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Debaromyces hansenii, Kluyveromyces lactis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Zygosaccharomyces bailii and ACSA in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The first step was to compare nucleotide sequence of genes and aminoacid sequence of enzymes. For nucleotide sequences two different clusters of genes were obtained (ACS1 and ACS2) located between them ACSA gene from S. pombe. For aminoacid sequences obtained results were similar to nucleotide ones. In the next step, comparison of amino acid sequences to the sequence of ACS2 from Z. bailii, three conservative fragments were detected. Moreover the presence of motif III (consider as catalytically important) was confirmed. Five sequences were found (FTAGD, YFTGD, YFAGD, LRTGD, YFSGD) and their exact positions were determined.

Thirty-two strains were obtained in Wratislavia K1 strain of Yarrowia lipolytica through chemical mutagenesis using N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. In Petri-dishes test strains were examined towards better growth in conditions of low pH and high concentration of glycerol and towards poorer use of erythritol as carbon source in comparison to parental strain. Fifteen strains were selected and tested for their ability to produce erytrhtiol in 7-days shake-flasks experiment. In the medium containing pure glycerol all the strains under investigation produced erythritol with the yield of 0.22–0.25 g·g^-1, hence higher than parental strain. The yield of erythritol production from crude glycerol by mutant strains was in the range of 0.20–0.24 g·g^-1, and 0.25 g·g^-1 by Wratislavia K1. During erythritol biosynthesis all the examined strains formed by-products – mannitol, arabitol, citric and α-ketoglutaric acids – and their share in the total products ranged from 41.8 to 32.8%. Analysis of by-products indicated three strains, Wratislavia K1-b, Wratislavia K1-d i Wratislavia K1-g, as potentially useful for erythritol biosynthesis in bioreactor cultures.

The article presents technology used in alcohol-distilling industry producing ethanol for industrial and food purposes. The introduction presents the fermentation process and the factors affecting the technological process, its efficiency and quality of the obtained distillate. In order to evaluate the potential of technological and economic benefits, in the following sections there were made comparative characteristics of the methods for the preparation of starch raw materials to ethanol fermentation, commonly used in Polish distilleries, such as pressure cooking, pressureless starch liberation method and the technologies used in global production plants of ethanol such as: Stargen, Biostil, SSF. Emphasis was placed on i.e. process parameters, used enzymes and care of environment. Summary points out potential benefits of further technological development for the alcohol-distilling industry.