The strain carries the plasmid pLOI297, which
contains the genes for pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) and alcohol
dehydrogenase (adh) fromZ. mobilisnecessary for efficiently converting pyruvate into ethanol (Alterthum and Ingram, 1989). The
plasmid also contains the genes for ampicillin and tetracycline
resistance. It selectively maintains the plasmid when grown anaerobically and is capable of fermenting both hexose and pentose sugars to ethanol.