Project description:To explore the cross feeding interactions between the acetogenic human colonic bacterium Blautia hydrogenotrophica and the nutritional specialist amyloltic bacterium Ruminococcus bromii in a continuous culture system utilising transcriptome analysis.
Project description:Acetogenic bacteria utilize cellular redox energy to convert CO2 to acetate using the Wood-Ljungdahl (WL) pathway. Such redox energy can be derived from electrons generated from H2 as well as inorganic materials such as photo-responsive semiconductors. To reveal how acetogenic bacteria utilize electrons generated from external energy sources to reduce CO2, we developed a nanoparticle-microbe hybrid system and generated RNA-seq results.
Project description:Acetate is a simple carboxylic acid that is synthesized in various microorganisms. Although acetate toxicity and tolerance have been studied in many microorganisms, little is known about the effects of exogenous acetate on the cell growth of acetogenic bacteria. In this study, we report the phenotypic changes that occurred in the acetogenic bacterium Clostridium sp. AWRP as a result of an adaptive laboratory evolution under acetate challenge. When compared with the wild-type strain, the acetate-adapted strain displayed a tolerance to acetate up to 10 g L-1 and higher biomass yields in batch cultures, although the metabolite profiles greatly varied depending on culture conditions. Interestingly, genome sequencing revealed that the adapted strain harbored three point mutations in the genes encoding an electron-bifurcating hydrogenase, which is crucial to its autotrophic growth on CO2 + H2, in addition to one in the dnaK gene. Transcriptome analysis revealed the global change in the gene expression profile of the acetate-adapted strain. Strikingly, most genes involved in CO2-fixing Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and auxiliary pathways for energy conservation (e.g., Rnf complex, Nfn, etc.) were significantly down-regulated. In addition, we observed that a couple of metabolic pathways associated with dissimilation of nucleosides and carbohydrates were significantly up-regulated in the acetate-adapted strain as well as several amino acid biosynthetic pathways, indicating that the strain might increase its fitness by utilizing organic substrates in response to the down-regulation of carbon fixation. Further investigation into the carbon fixation degeneration of the acetate-adapted strain will provide practical implications in CO2 + H2 fermentation using acetogenic bacteria for long-term continuous fermentation. The transcriptome profiles of the wild-type Clostridium sp. AWRP and its acetate-tolerant derivative 46T-a were compared.
Project description:Cheap and renewable feedstocks such as the one carbon substrate formate are emerging for sustainable production in a growing chemical industry. By quantitatively analyzing physiology, transcriptome, proteome in chemostat cultivations in combination with computational analyses, we investigated the acetogen Acetobacterium woodii as a potential host for bioproduction from formate alone and together with autotrophic and heterotrophic co-substrates. Continuous cultivations with a specific growth rate of 0.05 h-1 on formate showed high specific substrate uptake rates (47 mmol g‑1 h‑1). Co-utilization of formate with H2, CO, CO2 or fructose was achieved without catabolite repression and with acetate as the sole metabolic product. A transcriptomic comparison of all growth conditions revealed a distinct adaptation of A. woodii to growth on formate as 570 genes were changed in their transcription. Transcriptome and proteome showed higher expression of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway during growth on formate and gaseous substrates, underlining its function during utilization of one carbon substrates. Flux balance analysis showed varying flux levels for the WLP (0.7-16.4 mmol/g/h) and major differences in redox and energy metabolism. Growth on formate, H2/CO2, and formate+H2/CO2 resulted in low energy availability (0.20-0.22 ATP/acetate) which was increased during co-utilization with CO or fructose (0.31 ATP/acetate for formate+H2/CO/CO2, 0.75 ATP/acetate for formate+fructose). Unitrophic and mixotrophic conversion of all substrates was further characterized by high energetic efficiencies. In silico analysis of bioproduction of ethanol and lactate from formate and autotrophic and heterotrophic co-substrates showed promising energetic efficiencies (70-92%). Collectively, our findings reveal A. woodii as a promising host for flexible and simultaneous bioconversion of multiple substrates, underline the potential of substrate co-utilization to improve the energy availability of acetogens and encourage metabolic engineering of acetogenic bacteria for the efficient synthesis of bulk chemicals and fuels from sustainable one carbon substrates.