<P><B>Background</B></P><P>The self-assembly of cellulosomes on the surface of yeast is a promising strategy for consolidated bioprocessing to convert cellulose into ethanol in one step.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>In this study, we developed a novel synthetic cellulosome that anchors to the endogenous yeast cell wall protein a-agglutinin through disulfide bonds. A synthetic scaffoldin ScafAGA3 was constructed using the repeated N-terminus of Aga1p and displayed on the yeast cell surface. Secreted cellulases were then fused with Aga2p to assemble the cellulosome. The display efficiency of the synthetic scaffoldin and the assembly efficiency of each enzyme were much higher than those of the most frequently constructed cellulosome using scaffoldin ScafCipA3 from <I>Clostridium thermocellum</I>. A complex cellulosome with two scaffoldins was also constructed using interactions between the displayed anchoring scaffoldin ScafAGA3 and scaffoldin I ScafCipA3 through disulfide bonds, and the assembly of secreted cellulases to ScafCipA3. The newly designed cellulosomes enabled yeast to directly ferment cellulose into ethanol.</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>This is the first report on the development of complex multiple-component assembly system through disulfide bonds. This strategy could facilitate the construction of yeast cell factories to express synergistic enzymes for use in biotechnology.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-018-0971-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>