Clostridium acetobutylicum explained

Clostridium acetobutylicum, ATCC 824, is a commercially valuable bacterium sometimes called the "Weizmann Organism", after Jewish Russian-born biochemist Chaim Weizmann. A senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, England, he used them in 1916 as a bio-chemical tool to produce at the same time, jointly, acetone, ethanol, and n-butanol from starch. The method has been described since as the ABE process, (Acetone Butanol Ethanol fermentation process), yielding 3 parts of acetone, 6 of n-butanol, and 1 of ethanol. Acetone was used in the important wartime task of casting cordite. The alcohols were used to produce vehicle fuels and synthetic rubber.

Unlike yeast, which can digest only some sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, C. acetobutylicum and other Clostridia can digest whey, sugar, starch, cellulose and perhaps certain types of lignin, yielding n-butanol, propionic acid, ether, and glycerin.

In genetic engineering

In 2008, a strain of Escherichia coli was genetically engineered to synthesize butanol; the genes were derived from Clostridium acetobutylicum.^{[1] [2]} In 2013, the first microbial production of short-chain alkanes was reported^[3] - which is a considerable step toward the production of gasoline. One of the crucial enzymes - a fatty acyl-CoA reductase - came from Clostridium acetobutylicum.

See also

• ABE
• Acetone
  • Butanol Clostridium beijerinckii
• Ethanol

Further reading

• Nölling J . Genome sequence and comparative analysis of the solvent-producing bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum . J. Bacteriol. . 183 . 16 . 4823–38 . August 2001 . 11466286 . 99537 . 10.1128/JB.183.16.4823-4838.2001 . vanc. Breton G . Omelchenko MV . 3 . Makarova . K. S. . Zeng . Q. . Gibson . R. . Lee . H. M. . Dubois . J. . Qiu . D..
• Driessen AJ, Ubbink-Kok T, Konings WN . Amino acid transport by membrane vesicles of an obligate anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium acetobutylicum . J. Bacteriol. . 170 . 2 . 817–20 . February 1988 . 2828326 . 210727 . 10.1128/jb.170.2.817-820.1988.
• Zappe H, Jones WA, Jones DT, Woods DR . Structure of an endo-beta-1,4-glucanase gene from Clostridium acetobutylicum P262 showing homology with endoglucanase genes from Bacillus spp . Appl. Environ. Microbiol. . 54 . 5 . 1289–92 . May 1988 . 3389820 . 202643 . 10.1128/AEM.54.5.1289-1292.1988. 1988ApEnM..54.1289Z .
• Bowles LK, Ellefson WL . Effects of butanol on Clostridium acetobutylicum . Appl. Environ. Microbiol. . 50 . 5 . 1165–70 . November 1985 . 2868690 . 238718 . 10.1128/AEM.50.5.1165-1170.1985. 1985ApEnM..50.1165B .
  • • Weber . Christian . Farwick . Alexander . Benisch . Feline . Brat . Dawid . Dietz . Heiko . Subtil . Thorsten . Boles . Eckhard . Trends and challenges in the microbial production of lignocellulosic bioalcohol fuels . Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology . 10 June 2010 . 87 . 4 . 1303–1315 . 10.1007/s00253-010-2707-z . 20535464 . 12601202 . 0175-7598.
• 373084 . 3540574 . 1986 . Jones . DT . Woods . DR . Acetone-butanol fermentation revisited . 50 . 4 . 484–524 . Microbiological Reviews. 10.1128/MMBR.50.4.484-524.1986 .
• Book: Bartha . Ronald M. Atlas & Richard . Microbial ecology : fundamentals and applications . 1993 . Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co. . Redwood City, Calif. . 978-0-8053-0653-8 . 563 . 3rd . registration .
• Book: Microbial Processes: Promising Technologies for Developing Countries . 1979 . National Academy of Sciences . Washington . 10 May 2011. 10.17226/9544 . 978-0-309-57050-3 .
• Web site: Wong Kromhout . Wileen . UCLA researchers engineer E. coli to produce record-setting amounts of alternative fuel . UCLA Newsroom . 2011-03-16 . 2015-04-18 . https://archive.today/20150418144123/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-engineers-drive-e-coli-to-197675 . 2015-04-18 . dead .

External links

• ATCC reference organism 824 C.Acetobutylicum.
• findarticles.com: Bacteria speeds drug to tumors - use of Clostridium acetobutylicum enzyme to activate cancer drug CB 1954.
• EPA Clostridium acetobutylicum Final Risk Assessment
• Genetic Engineering of Clostridium acetobutylicum for Enhanced Production of Hydrogen Gas: Penn State University.
• Pathema-Clostridium Resource
• Chaim Weizmann
• Type strain of Clostridium acetobutylicum at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase

Notes and References

1. Web site: M. Goho . Alexandra . Better Bugs for Making Butanol . MIT Technology Review . 2008-01-16.
2. Atsumi . S. . Hanai . T. . Liao . JC. . Non-fermentative pathways for synthesis of branched-chain higher alcohols as biofuels. . Nature . 451 . 7174 . 86–9 . Jan 2008 . 10.1038/nature06450 . 18172501 . 2008Natur.451...86A . 4413113 .
3. Choi . YJ. . Lee . SY. . Microbial production of short-chain alkanes. . Nature . 502 . 7472 . 571–4 . Oct 2013 . 10.1038/nature12536 . 24077097 . 2013Natur.502..571C . 4393929 .