This study was carried out in order to investigate the characteristics of xylitol fermentation by a xylitol dehydrogenase defective mutant PXM-4 of P stipitis CBS 5776 and to determime optimum conditions for the high yield ofxylitol production from xylose. Gluconic acid was selected as a co substrate for the xylitol fermentation, since gluconic acid neither blocked xylose transport nor repressed xylose reductase expression. An increase of gluconic acid concentration reduced the rates of xylitol production and cell growth by decreasing medium pH, and the optimal concentration of gluconic acid was determined to be 20 gll with approximately 100% xylitol conversion yield. A fed-batch cell culture resulted in a 44.8 g/l xylitol concentration with 100% yield, based on the amount of xylose consumed.