Sunday, July 29, 2007
P109

Construction and Characterization of ptb-deleted Mutant of Clostridium tyrobutyricum and its effect on Hydrogen Fermentation

Yali Zhang and Shang-Tian Yang. The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 140 W. 19th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210

Hydrogen is considered as a potential future fuel since it is a clean fuel, has high energy content per unit weight, and can be easily converted to electricity by fuel cell. However, the current production routes, which include catalytic fuel reforming and electrolysis of water, are energy intensive and expensive. Some microorganisms have the capability to produce hydrogen directly from carbohydrates. Clostridium tyrobutyricum can produce acetate, butyrate and hydrogen during anaerobic fermentation. The co-production of acetate and butyrate increases the separation cost and make the process uneconomical. Our attempt is to knockout the genes involved in butyrate pathway to shut down the butyrate production or to decrease the butyrate yield. The saved NADH has the possibility to be converted to reduced form of ferrodoxin which is the direct substrate for hydrogen production. The homologous recombination technology is used to disrupt the ptb gene and the mutant is characterized by southern blotting, enzyme assay and SDS-PAGE. The gene knock-out effect on the production is also evaluated.

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