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Title: Enzymology of acetone-butanol-isopropanol formation: Progress report, February 1, 1988--January 31, 1989

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6581986

This project will elucidate the molecular properties of solvent-forming enzymes and to understand the mechanisms for regulating the metabolic pathway and the expression of solvent-production genes. Our research has been carried out mostly with two strains of Clostridium beijerinckii (Clostridium butylicum). C. beijerinckii strain B593 is the more versatile one as it produces acetone, n-butanol, ethanol and isopropanol. C. beijerinckii strain B592 produces acetone, n-butanol and ethanol, but not isopropanol, which makes it similar to Clostridium acetobutylicum in product pattern. More recently, we have utilized another solvent-producing organism, Bacillus macerans, in our enzyme studies. B. macerans is a facultative anaerobe which produces high levels of acetone and ethanol under anaerobic conditions, and it also appears to go through a metabolic switch to enter the acetone-producing stage. The metabolic pathway of B. macerans does not have the butyric acid/butanol branches which offers two advantages in our study of solvent formation: (1) it would not have two acetoacetyl CoA-reacting enzymes (3-hydroxybutyryl CoA dehydrogenase and phosphotransbutyrylase) to interfere with the study of acetoacetate-forming enzymes, and (2) it allows a study of the physiology of acetone formation without the complication of accompanying butanol formation. 4 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

Research Organization:
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
FG05-85ER13368
OSTI ID:
6581986
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/13368-5; ON: DE89006290
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English