Domestication of the novel alcohologenic acetogen Clostridium sp. AWRP: from isolation to characterization for syngas fermentation

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundGas-fermenting acetogens have received a great deal of attention for their ability to grow on various syngas and waste gas containing carbon monoxide (CO), producing acetate as the primary metabolite. Among them, someClostridiumspecies, such asC. ljungdahliiandC. autoethanogenum, are of particular interest as they produce fuel alcohols as well. Despite recent efforts, alcohol production by these species is still unsatisfactory due to their low productivity and acetate accumulation, necessitating the isolation of strains with better phenotypes.ResultsIn this study, a novel alcohol-producing acetogen (Clostridiumsp. AWRP) was isolated, and its complete genome was sequenced. This bacterium belongs the same phylogenetic group asC. ljungdahlii,C. autoethanogenum,C. ragsdalei, andC. coskatiibased on 16S rRNA homology; however, the levels of genome-wide average nucleotide identity (gANI) for strain AWRP compared with these strains range between 95 and 96%, suggesting that this strain can be classified as a novel species. In addition, strain AWRP produced a substantial amount of ethanol (70–90 mM) from syngas in batch serum bottle cultures, which was comparable to or even exceeded the typical values obtained using its close relatives cultivated under similar conditions. In a batch bioreactor, strain AWRP produced 119 and 12 mM of ethanol and 2,3-butanediol, respectively, while yielding only 1.4 mM of residual acetate. Interestingly, the alcohologenesis of this strain was strongly affected by oxidoreduction potential (ORP), which has not been reported with other gas-fermenting clostridia.ConclusionConsidering its ethanol production under low oxidoreduction potential (ORP) conditions,Clostridiumsp. AWRP will be an interesting host for biochemical studies to understand the physiology of alcohol-producing acetogens, which will contribute to metabolic engineering of those strains for the production of alcohols and other value-added compounds from syngas.