Isopropanol is one of the most widely used solvents in the world. It is also one of the secondary alcohols that can be used as a direct or partial replacement for gasoline. Since the metabolic pathways and regulation of natural isopropanol producing strains are not well known, the final isopropanol titer can not satisfy rapidly increasing industrial demand. In this work, we studied the feasibility of enabling Clostridium tyrobutyricum to produce isopropanol. C. tyrobutyricum is an anaerobic acidogen which can convert glucose and xylose to acetate and butyrate. A plasmid was constructed with C. acetobutylicum ctf (acetoacetyl-CoA transferase), adc (acetoacetate decarboxylase) and C. beijerinckii adh (secondary alcohol dehydrogenase) genes. The plasmid was transformed into C. tyrobutyricum wild type, ack (acetate kinase) knockout, pta (phosphotransacetylase) knockout and ptb (phosphotransbutyrylase) knockout. The abilities of isopropanol production of these mutants were compared. Isopropanol challenge assay was performed.

Metabolic engineering of Clostridium tyrobutyricum for isopropanol production

245th National Meeting (2013)

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