Project description:The impacts of ferulic acid, a phenolic compound commonly found in lignin hydrolysates, on the growth, solvent production and transcriptional responses of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 were determined. Addition of ferulic acid to growing cultures resulted in a decrease in the growth and solvent production by 30 and 25%, respectively, when compared to the control cultures. To better understand the toxicity of this compound, microarray analyses were performed using samples taken from these cultures at three different growth states. Several gene ontology terms and KEGG pathways were identified showing significant change at each status, including ABC transporters, two component system and oxidoreductase activity. Moreover, genes related with efflux systems and heat shock proteins were also strongly up- regulated. Among these, expression of the groESL operon was induced by more than 4-fold and was consequently selected for overexpression to improve C. beijerinckii tolerance to ferulic acid.
Project description:The Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 wild-type culture was monitored from exponential growth to stationary phase. During this period the culture underwent a shift from acidogenesis to solventogenesis. Acetone and butanol production was initiated with the onset of the solventogenic phase. Using DNA microarray changes in gene expression were examined during the transitional period.
Project description:Solventogenic Clostridium species ferment carbohydrates to acetone, butanol and ethanol which are well-known next-generation biofuels. However, repeated subculture of or continuous fermentation by Clostridium often decreases and eventually terminates the solvent production and spore formation, which is a process called strain degeneration. Supplementation of CaCO3 to fermentation medium could partially recover metabolism of degenerated strain by more than 50% increase of cell growth and solvent production. The transcriptome profile of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 (DG-8052) and its response to CaCO3 treatment were analysed by microarray. Since fermentation by C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 is a biphasic process, gene expressions of two fermentations were compared at each stage, i.e. 12h and 24h fermentation time representing acidogenic phase and solventogenic phase, respectively. This study examined expression of 5168 genes capturing 98.6% of the C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 genome. With the addition of CaCO3, DG-8052 had 565 and 916 genes significantly up-regulated at acidogenic phase and solventogenic phase, respectively. According to the enrichment analysis of pathway and Gene Ontology terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, these genes were significantly overrepresented in cellular functions such as Amino acid transport and metabolism, organic acid biosynthetic process, bacteria chemotaxis and defense mechanisms. On the other hand, there were 704 and 1044 genes significantly down-regulated at acidogenic phase and solventogenic phase, respectively. These repressed genes were mainly enriched in functions such as ion transmembrane transport, ATP synthesis, oxidative phosphorylation.
Project description:The gutD gene of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 encoding glucitol 6-phosphate dehydrogenase was cloned on a 5.7-kbp chromosomal DNA fragment by complementing an Escherichia coli gutD mutant strain and selecting for growth on glucitol. Five open reading frames (ORFs) in the order gutA1 gutA2 orfX gutB gutD were identified in a 4.0-kbp region of the cloned DNA. The deduced products of four of these ORFs were homologous to components of the glucitol phosphotransferase system (PTS) and glucitol 6-phosphate dehydrogenase from E. coli, while the remaining ORF (orfX) encoded an enzyme which had similarities to members of a family of transaldolases. A strain in which gutD was inactivated by targeted integration lacked glucitol 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity. The gutA1 and gutA2 genes encoded two polypeptides forming enzyme IIBC of the glucitol PTS comprising three domains in the order CBC. Domain IIA of the glucitol PTS was encoded by gutB. Glucitol phosphorylation assays in which soluble and membrane fractions of cells grown on glucose (which did not synthesize the glucitol PTS) or cells grown on glucitol were used confirmed that there is a separate, soluble, glucitol-specific PTS component, which is the product of the gutB gene. The gut genes were regulated at the level of transcription and were induced in the presence of glucitol. Cells grown in the presence of glucose and glucitol utilized glucose preferentially. Following depletion of glucose, the glucitol PTS and glucitol 6-phosphate dehydrogenase were synthesized, and glucitol was removed from the culture medium. RNA analysis showed that the gut genes were not expressed until glucose was depleted.
Project description:Furfural is the prevalent microbial inhibitor generated during pretreatment and hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to monomeric sugars, but the molecular response of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 to this compound is unknown. To discern the effect of furfural on C. beijerinckii and to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms of action and detoxification, we studied the physiological changes of furfural-stressed cultures during acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation, and profiled differentially expressed genes by genome-wide transcriptional analysis. C. beijerinckii exposed to furfural stress during the acidogenic growth phase produced 13% more ABE than the unstressed control. The growth and ABE by C. beijerinckii ceased following exposure to furfural stress during the solventogenic growth phase. By comparing gene expression of furfural-stressed cultures to that of the unstressed control, at both the acidogenic and solventogenic phases, we ascertained that furfural induces expression of several genes including those that code for heat shock proteins, redox enzymes and cofactor associated proteins, and ATP-binding cassette transporters, and represses genes belonging to the phosphotransferase system, two-component system, chemotaxis and cell motility. Based on these results, we discuss the underpinning for furfural-mediated change in ABE fermentation by the solventogenic Clostridium species.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Phenolic compounds generated in hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials are major limiting factors for biological production of solvents by Clostridia, but it lacks the attention on the study of adaptation or resistance mechanisms in response to phenolic compounds. RESULTS:Gene Cbei_3304, encoding a hypothetical membrane transport protein, was analyzed by bioinformatic method. After insertional inactivation of the functionally uncertain gene Cbei_3304 in Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, resulted in enhanced phenolic compounds tolerance. Compared to the parent strain C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, evaluation of toxicity showed the recombination stain C. beijerinckii 3304::int had a higher level of tolerance to four model phenolic compounds of lignocellulose-derived microbial inhibitory compounds. A comparative transcriptome analysis showed that the genes were involved in membrane transport proteins (ABC and MFS family) and were up-regulated expression after disrupting gene Cbei_3304. Additionally, the adaptation of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 in response to non-detoxified hemicellulosic hydrolysate was improved by disrupting gene Cbei_3304. CONCLUSION:Toxicity evaluation of lignocellulose-derived phenolic compounds shows that Cbei_3304 plays a significant role in regulating toxicities tolerance for ABE fermentation by C. beijerinckii, and the adaptation of non-detoxified hemicellulosic hydrolysate is significantly improved after inactivation of Cbei_3304 in wild-type strain C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052. It provided a potential strategy for generating high inhibitor tolerance strains for using lignocellulosic materials to produce solvents by clostridia in this study.
Project description:BackgroundSolventogenic clostridia offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based production of butanol--an important chemical feedstock and potential fuel additive or replacement. C. beijerinckii is an attractive microorganism for strain design to improve butanol production because it (i) naturally produces the highest recorded butanol concentrations as a byproduct of fermentation; and (ii) can co-ferment pentose and hexose sugars (the primary products from lignocellulosic hydrolysis). Interrogating C. beijerinckii metabolism from a systems viewpoint using constraint-based modeling allows for simulation of the global effect of genetic modifications.ResultsWe present the first genome-scale metabolic model (iCM925) for C. beijerinckii, containing 925 genes, 938 reactions, and 881 metabolites. To build the model we employed a semi-automated procedure that integrated genome annotation information from KEGG, BioCyc, and The SEED, and utilized computational algorithms with manual curation to improve model completeness. Interestingly, we found only a 34% overlap in reactions collected from the three databases--highlighting the importance of evaluating the predictive accuracy of the resulting genome-scale model. To validate iCM925, we conducted fermentation experiments using the NCIMB 8052 strain, and evaluated the ability of the model to simulate measured substrate uptake and product production rates. Experimentally observed fermentation profiles were found to lie within the solution space of the model; however, under an optimal growth objective, additional constraints were needed to reproduce the observed profiles--suggesting the existence of selective pressures other than optimal growth. Notably, a significantly enriched fraction of actively utilized reactions in simulations--constrained to reflect experimental rates--originated from the set of reactions that overlapped between all three databases (P = 3.52 × 10-9, Fisher's exact test). Inhibition of the hydrogenase reaction was found to have a strong effect on butanol formation--as experimentally observed.ConclusionsMicrobial production of butanol by C. beijerinckii offers a promising, sustainable, method for generation of this important chemical and potential biofuel. iCM925 is a predictive model that can accurately reproduce physiological behavior and provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of microbial butanol production. As such, the model will be instrumental in efforts to better understand, and metabolically engineer, this microorganism for improved butanol production.
Project description:The Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 wild-type culture was monitored from exponential growth to stationary phase. During this period the culture underwent a shift from acidogenesis to solventogenesis. Acetone and butanol production was initiated with the onset of the solventogenic phase. Using DNA microarray changes in gene expression were examined during the transitional period. RNA samples were taken from Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 wild-type fermentation culture at individual time points during the acidogenic phase and the solventogenic phase. The samples were used for microarray hybridization.