Moorella strains for the production of biochemicals from syngas

In the process of sugar fermentation, a significant portion of lignocellulosic biomass is left unused. An alternative is the gasification into syngas, a carbon-rich gas mixture. Syngas serves as energy and carbon source for acetogenic bacteria, which can then produce biochemicals. In the syngas fermentation process even the recalcitrant lignin portion can be fully converted into higher value compounds.

However, cost-effectiveness of this process requires better understanding of the metabolism and modification of the acetogenic strains. The present project lays the basis for production of higher value biochemicals (acetone) from syngas using Moorella strains. Moorella has outstanding abilities like thermophily and carbon source conversion yields that make it especially suitable for the syngas fermentation process.

The present project focuses on understanding the primary metabolism in acetogenic bacteria. The main research aspect is hereby to determine the acceptance of, and the exact growth rates on different carbon sources (C1 and C6 compounds and gaseous substrates) in different Moorella strains. Genome analysis on pathway level is performed to link genotype and phenotype. Differential expression analysis (RNA-seq) between heterotrophic and autotrophic growth serves to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms underlying carbon source utilization.

In the second part of the project tools for genetic manipulation of Moorella strains are developed. For example, a pyrF deletion strain, which allows heterologous gene expression, was constructed. These tools and knowledge will be applied to engineer strains with outstanding abilities for the production of higher value biochemicals which are currently derived from fossil sources.