Project description:Clostridium acetobutylicum is a Gram positive, endospore forming firmicute that has been known as the model organims for ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) fermentation. With its ability to consume a wide variety of substrates, C. acetobutylicum carries out a biphasic ABE fermentation, which consists of the acidogenic growth phase with the formation of butyric acid and acetic acid, followed by the solventogenic stationary phase with the formation of acetone, butanol and ethanol, characterised by the reassimilation of acids. The production butanol is of renewed ineterest both as a potential biofuel and bulk chemical production. Both butanol and butyrate posses toxic characteristic and here, we focus on understanding and modeling the stress response of C. acetobutylicum to one of the two important toxic metabolites: butanol.
Project description:Metabolite accumulation has pleiotropic, including toxic, effects on cellular physiology, but such effects are not well understood at the genomic level. Using DNA microarrays, the Clostridium acetobutylicum transcriptional stress response to butanol was analyzed. Keywords: stress response
