ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2008
Metabolic engineering of a thermophilic bacterium to produce ethanol at high yield.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 110 papers.
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Who cites it
110 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diverse thermophilic anaerobes from Indian hot springs show potential for bioenergy production from lignocellulosic biomass.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Adaptive evolution of electron transfer pathways inJournal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Marine Vibrio Biocatalysts as Unique Green Transformation (GX) Tools at the Time to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Metabolic imbalance limits fermentation in microbes engineered for high-titer ethanol production.mSystems · 2026Article
- Unveiling the probiotic potential of the genus Geobacillus through comparative genomics and in silico analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The role of AdhE mutations inJournal of bacteriology · 2025Article
- Genetic investigation of hydrogenases inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus and Alternative Methanogens: Archaea-Based Production.Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology · 2025Review
- Biofuel production from lignocellulose via thermophile-based consolidated bioprocessing.Engineering microbiology · 2024Review
- Reprogramming Metabolic Flux in Escherichia Coli to Enhance Chondroitin Production.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Comparative genomics reveals probable adaptations for xylose use in Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum.Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions · 2024Article
- The potential of native and engineered Clostridia for biomass biorefining.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2024Review
- Global trends and future prospects of lactic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass.RSC advances · 2023Article
- Sustainable metabolic engineering requires a perfect trifecta.Current opinion in biotechnology · 2023Review
- Metabolic engineering of Thermoanaerobacterium AK17 for increased ethanol production in seaweed hydrolysate.Biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts · 2023Article
- Growth-uncoupled propanediol production in a Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum strain engineered for high ethanol yield.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Current status and applications of genus Geobacillus in the production of industrially important products-a review.Folia microbiologica · 2022Review
- Bacterial xylan utilization regulons: systems for coupling depolymerization of methylglucuronoxylans with assimilation and metabolism.Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology · 2022Article
- Plant biomass fermentation by the extreme thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor bescii for co-production of green hydrogen and acetone: Technoeconomic analysis.Bioresource technology · 2022Article
- Synergy of Cellulase Systems betweenMicroorganisms · 2022Article
50 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We report engineering Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum, a thermophilic anaerobic bacterium that ferments xylan and biomass-derived sugars, to produce ethanol at high yield. Knockout of genes involved in organic acid formation (acetate kinase, phosphate acetyltransferase, and L-lactate dehydrogenase) resulted in a strain able to produce ethanol as the only detectable organic product and substantial changes in electron flow relative to the wild type. Ethanol formation in the engineered strain (ALK2) utilizes pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase with electrons transferred from ferredoxin to NAD(P), a pathway different from that in previously described microbes with a homoethanol fermentation. The homoethanologenic phenotype was stable for >150 generations in continuous culture. The growth rate of strain ALK2 was similar to the wild-type strain, with a reduction in cell yield proportional to the decreased ATP availability resulting from acetate kinase inactivation. Glucose and xylose are co-utilized and utilization of mannose and arabinose commences before glucose and xylose are exhausted. Using strain ALK2 in simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation experiments at 50 degrees C allows a 2.5-fold reduction in cellulase loading compared with using Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 37 degrees C. The maximum ethanol titer produced by strain ALK2, 37 g/liter, is the highest reported thus far for a thermophilic anaerobe, although further improvements are desired and likely possible. Our results extend the frontier of metabolic engineering in thermophilic hosts, have the potential to significantly lower the cost of cellulosic ethanol production, and support the feasibility of further cost reductions through engineering a diversity of host organisms.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.