Feedstock composition can drastically affect the metabolite profile of a microbial fermentation.  In this presentation we demonstrate the metabolic output of Clostridium acetobutylicum can be controlled by selective carbohydrate fermentation.  The oxidation state of the feedstock and the pathway used for catabolism influences metabolic output.  As expected, fermentation of increasingly oxidized sugars produced increasing acetate to butyrate ratios with the most oxidized feedstock resulting in nearly homoacetic fermentation.  The influence of the catabolic pathway on metabolic output was also demonstrated by examining acetate:butyrate ratios of pentose fermentations.  In this organism some pentoses are metabolized by the pentose phosphate pathway while others are metabolized by both the pentose phosphate pathway and the phosphoketolase pathway.  The phosphoketolase pathway results in a decreased need to oxidize the redox molecules ferredoxin and NADH and as a result acetate:butyrate ratios where higher when this pathway contributed to pentose metabolism.  Comparison of all growth conditions showed acetate:butyrate ratios correlated with NADH production but not reduced ferredoxin production.

Feedstock control of metabolic output in <i>Clostridium acetobutylicum</i>

247th National Meeting (2014)

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Feedstock control of metabolic output in Clostridium acetobutylicum