Microbial communities have great potential as an alternative biocatalyst for conversion of lignocellulosic streams. Microbial communities have evolved to collectively carry out these functions for biomass-derived streams and this functionality can be deployed in bioelectrochemical systems for conversion of biorefinery streams into hydrogen and other products. In the present study, an enriched high-performing community fed with a pyrolysis-derived aqueous phase was analyzed via metagenomics and transcriptomics to characterize the genetic potential of the community for biomass degradation, as well as uncover the active players involved in linking degradation to electron transfer to elucidate functional roles within the community and ecological interactions that drive high performance. An optimized assembly process resulted in the generation of 21 high-quality genomes form the microbial community.Two members of the Deltaproteobacteria and Clostridium families were found to be the dominant strains in the community, making up nearly 50%. The former was demonstrated to possess novel exoelectrogenic behavior for its taxonomy, containing c-type cytochromes such as OmcZ, as well as pilA sequences similar to Geobacter sp. The Clostridium strain contained a substantial number of biomass-degrading genes, with a total of 425 CDS for CAZy related genes. The large amount of Firmicutes in the population totaling 42.5%, and the community as whole containing CAZy CDs spread across different roles in lignocellulosic degradation highlighting selective forces of biomass-derived streams, requiring robust fermenters and cellulolytic microbes to convert the biomass to electrons, which the community demonstrated with high efficiency.

Electro-active communities for hydrogen production from biomass streams

255th National Meeting (2018)

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