COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR PRODUCING FERMENTABLE CARBOHYDRATES IN PLANTS

摘要

Provided herein are methods for producing fermentable sugar obtained from a plant tissue. The methods include providing transgenic plant material comprising one or more locked carbohydrates and contacting plant material with an enzyme capable of converting the locked carbohydrate into a fermentable sugar. The methods are useful for providing sugar or sugar precursors for several industrial purposes including ethanol production. The invention also encompasses plants and plant parts that produce a lock enzyme to yield a locked carbohydrate, with the consequence of accumulating the locked carbohydrate in the plant. The inventon also encompasses providing a key enzyme able to convert locked carbohydrates to fermentable sugars. Key enzymes can be provided by transgenic plants or plant parts, transgenic microbes, transgenic yeast, microbes or yeast.