Co‑cultivation of anaerobic fungi with Clostridium acetobutylicum bolsters butyrate and butanol production from cellulose and lignocellulose
Abstract
A system for co-cultivation of anaerobic fungi with anaerobic bacteria was established based on lactate cross-feeding to produce butyrate and butanol from plant biomass. Several co-culture formulations were assembled that consisted of anaerobic fungi (Anaeromyces robustus, Neocallimastix californiae, or Caecomyces churrovis) with the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum. Co-cultures were grown simultaneously (e.g., ‘one pot’), and compared to cultures where bacteria were cultured in fungal hydrolysate sequentially. Fungal hydrolysis of lignocellulose resulted in 7–11 mM amounts of glucose and xylose, as well as acetate, formate, ethanol, and lactate to support clostridial growth. Under these conditions, one-stage simultaneous co-culture of anaerobic fungi with C. acetobutylicum promoted the production of butyrate up to 30 mM. Alternatively, two-stage growth slightly promoted solventogenesis and elevated butanol levels (∼4–9 mM). Transcriptional regulation in the two-stage growth condition indicated that this cultivation method may decrease the time required to reach solventogenesis and induce the expression of cellulose-degrading genes in C. acetobutylicum due to relieved carbon-catabolite repression. Overall, this study demonstrates a proof of concept for biobutanol and bio-butyrate production from lignocellulose using an anaerobic fungal-bacterial co-culture system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1093/jimb/kuac024
Entities
People
- Candice L. Swift
- Christa Pennacchio
- Emily Savage
- Igor V. Grigoriev
- Jennifer L. Brown
- Marcus S. Benyamin
- Matthew A Perisin
- Michelle O'Malley
- Sanchao Liu
- Vasanth Singan
- Yu Zhang
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Joint BioEnergy Institute
- Joint Genome Institute
- Office of Science
- The Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
- United States Department of Energy
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Development Communication