Simultaneous fermentation of biomass-derived sugars to ethanol by a co-culture of an engineered Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

•Glucose and xylose were co-fermented by a co-culture of engineered E. coli and yeast.•Co-fermentation of sugars from sugar cane bagasse slurry at 20% solids was achieved.•Xylose fermentation rate of E. coli in media with glucose was 1.58 ± 0.21 g.L−1.h−1.