Saccharomyces cerevisiae is affected by the presence of certain phenolic compounds such as vanillin during fermentation of pretreated lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Since vanillin can be polymerized in the presence of laccase into compounds with lower toxicity, the laccase gene, lacA, from Trametes sp. AH28-2 was fused to the a-factor signal sequence and transferred into S. cerevisiae CEN.PK strains for secretory expression. Furthermore, the chaperone gene, KAR2 was overexpressed to promote the translocation of laccase. In the presence of 8 mmol/L vanillin, a shorter lag phase was observed in the lacA gene expressing strains. The vanillin-specific conversion rate of the lacA-expressing strain BSJX0A2 was 0.069 g g(-1) biomass h(-1). while it was 0.065 g g(-1) biomass h(-1) in the reference strain. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.