Clostridia: a flexible microbial platform for the production of alcohols.
Solventogenic clostridia are native producers of ethanol and many higher alcohols employing a broad range of cheap renewable substrates, such as lignocellulosic materials and C1 gases (CO and CO2). These characteristics enable solventogenic clostridia to act as flexible microbial platforms for the production of liquid biofuels. With the rapid development of genetic tools in recent years, the intrinsic intractability of clostridia has been largely overcome, thus, engineering clostridia for production of chemicals and fuels has attracted increasing interests. Here, we provide an overview of recent progress in the production of alcohols based on solventogenic clostridia. Saccharolytic, cellulolytic and gas-fermenting clostridia are discussed, with a special focus on strategies for metabolic engineering to enable and to improve clostridia for the production of higher alcohols.
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China; Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China.
Cong
C
Ren
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.
Zhiqiang
Z
Wen
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China; Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China.
Yan
Y
Xu
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, SICAM, 200 North Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China. Electronic address: whjiang@sibs.ac.cn.
Weihong
W
Jiang
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomanufacturing Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China. Electronic address: ygu02@sibs.ac.cn.
Yang
Y
Gu
D000438:Alcohols / Q000378:metabolism*; D003013:Clostridium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism
D000438:Alcohols; C036909:lignocellulose; D008031:Lignin