Project description:Clostridium ljungdahlii can utilize CO as energy source during autotrophic growth. C. ljungdahlii grows sufficiently in CO and produces ethanol as the main product. In this study, C. ljungdahlii wild type and mutant were fermented on CO. C. ljungdahlii produced more ethanol than the ΔadhE1 mutant. The results showed that aldehyde dehydrogenase inactivation led to inefficient metabolism in C. ljungdahlii. Thus, comparative transcriptomes among cells grown on CO of WT and ΔadhE1 mutant were performed to investigate gene expression profiles based on three biological replicates.
Project description:Clostridium ljungdahlii not only utilizes CO, but also H2 as energy source during autotrophic growth. And C. ljungdahlii also grows in fructose fermentation. In theory, fructose is a more energetically favourable energy source than syngas in the fermentation of C. ljungdahlii. However, C. ljungdahlii grows insufficiently in fructose and produces less acetate and ethanol, compared to syngas fermentation. In this study, C. ljungdahlii wild type and mutants were fermented on fructose. C. ljungdahlii produced less ethanol than the ΔadhE1 mutant and consumed less fructose. The ΔadhE1+2 mutant cannot grow in the syngas fermentation and produced less ethanol among the three strains. The results showed that aldehyde dehydrogenase inactivation led to efficient metabolism in C. ljungdahlii and the bifunctional aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenases inactivation led to decrease metabolism. Thus, comparative transcriptomes among cells grown on fructose of three strains were performed to investigate gene expression profiles based on three biological replicates.
Project description:Clostridium ljungdahlii not only utilizes CO, but also H2 as energy source during autotrophic growth. In theory, CO is a more energetically and thermodynamically favourable energy source than H2 in the gas fermentation of C. ljungdahlii. However, how C. ljungdahlii conserves energy for growth and ethanol/acetate formation grown on CO or CO2/H2 is not in great detail. In this study, C. ljungdahlii was fermented on CO and CO2/ H2 at pH 6.0 with 0.1 MPa gas pressure. C. ljungdahlii produced 27 g/L acetate, 9 g/L ethanol, 8 g/L 2,3-butanediol and traces of lactate in the presence of CO as energy source, while it produced 25.8 0.1 g/L acetate, 1.8 0.1 g/L ethanol, 0.7 0.01g/L 2,3-butanediol and trances of lactate in the same fermentation condition using H2 as energy source. Therefore, comparative transcriptomes between cells grown on CO and cells grown on H2/CO2 were performed to investigate gene expression profiles based on three biological replicates.
Project description:Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) enables certain microorganisms to utilize electrical energy (electrons) to produce valuable compounds using CO2 as a carbon source. It is closely related to gas fermentation in which hydrogen gas (H2) is used as the energy source, rather than in-situ electrochemically produced H2 in MES. Despite its potential for energy and carbon storage and the hype created around it, MES persists to face major limitations, such as low efficiency, unattractive products, and poor microbial growth. In this study, we compare the physiology of the model acetogen Clostridium ljungdahlii cultivated in gas fermenters and H-type electrobioreactors to identify the key stress factors limiting MES. We observed severe cellular stress and distinct physiological changes in MES through transcriptomics, proteomics, and electron microscopy analysis, showing that the electrochemical operation directly affects cellular metabolism. Most impressively, cell integrity was strongly impaired during growth in MES. Our results strongly indicate that this is because of a struggle to maintain the membrane potential and ATP synthesis. MES significantly impacted the central metabolic flux of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for CO₂ fixation and a diversion towards the glycine synthase-reductase pathway (GSRP), resulting in a broader spectrum of reduced products, including two amino compounds that appeared exclusively under MES conditions, ethanolamine, and glycine. We show that this struggle for ATP is compensated by the activation of the arginine metabolism to produce ATP. Multiple evidences indicate that this reaction could be fueled by the degradation of internal cyanophycin storage compounds, which have not been reported for C. ljungdahlii before. Additionally, our research highlights the expression of bacterial microcompartments (BMCs), which raises questions about their role during MES. This work demonstrates that MES drives C. ljungdahlii into a distinct physiological state and challenges its fitness, reshaping how we view MES process development. Our findings highlight the need to design MES strategies that mitigate the effects of the electrochemical environment on cellular physiology.
Project description:Transcriptomic profiles of the acetogen Clostridium ljungdahlii during lithoautotrophic growth with syngas or with H2 and CO2 compared to organoheterotrophic growth with fructose
Project description:The unique capability of acetogens to ferment a broad range of substrates renders them ideal candidates for the biotechnological production of commodity chemicals. In particular the ability to grow with H2:CO2 or syngas (a mixture of H2/CO/CO2) makes these microorganisms ideal chassis for sustainable bioproduction. However, advanced design strategies for acetogens are currently hampered by incomplete knowledge about their physiology and our inability to accurately predict phenotypes. Here we describe the reconstruction of a novel genome-scale model of metabolism and macromolecular synthesis (ME-model) to gain new insights into the biology of the model acetogen Clostridium ljungdahlii. The model represents the first ME-model of a Gram-positive bacterium and captures all major central metabolic, amino acid, nucleotide, lipid, major cofactors, and vitamin synthesis pathways as well as pathways to synthesis RNA and protein molecules necessary to catalyze these reactions, thus significantly broadens the scope and predictability. Use of the model revealed how protein allocation and media composition influence metabolic pathways and energy conservation in acetogens and accurately predicted secretion of multiple fermentation products. Predicting overflow metabolism is of particular interest since it enables new design strategies, e.g. the formation of glycerol, a novel product for C. ljungdahlii, thus broadening the metabolic capability for this model microbe. Furthermore, prediction and experimental validation of changing secretion rates based on different metal availability opens the window into fermentation optimization and provides new knowledge about the proteome utilization and carbon flux in acetogens.