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Production of Butyrate from Lactate by a Newly Isolated Clostridium sp. BPY5

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Abstract

Lactate-utilizing bacteria play important roles in the production of Chinese strong-flavored liquor (CSFL). However, the identity of these bacteria and their lactate-utilizing properties are largely unknown. Here, a lactate-utilizing, butyrate-producing bacterium BPY5 was isolated from an old fermentation pit for CSFL production. The isolate represented a novel species belonging to Clostridium cluster XIVa of family Lachnospiraceae based on phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences. Strain BPY5 could ferment lactate into butyrate as the major metabolic product. Butyrate was significantly formed at initial lactate concentration from 66 to 104 mM, but substantially declined when initial lactate exceeded 133 mM. At initial lactate concentration of 66 mM, lactate conversion was independent on initial pH from 5.5 to 7.0, but the conversion was completely inhibited when pH dropped below 4.8. Nevertheless, the inhibition on lactate conversion was largely relieved by the addition of acetate, suggesting that exogenous acetate could enhance lactate conversion at low pH condition. Additionally, lactate in CSFL-brewing wastewater was dramatically removed when inoculated with strain BPY5. These results implicate that the isolate may be applied for the industrial production of butyrate or the recovery of butyrate from lactate-containing wastewater.

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Abbreviations

CSFL:

Chinese strong-flavored liquor

CSFL-BW:

CSFL-brewing wastewater

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Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 31270531 and 3470020), the Open-foundation project of Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (no. KLCAS-2013-03), and the 973 Project of China (no. 2013CB733502).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Yong Tao, Xiaohong Hu, Xiaoyu Zhu & Xiangzhen Li

  2. Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, 610083, China

    Hong Jin

  3. The National-Recognized Enterprise Technology Center, Sichuan Jiannanchun Group Co., Ltd., Mianzhu, Sichuan, 618200, People’s Republic of China

    Zhancheng Xu & Qinglan Tang

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  1. Yong Tao
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  2. Xiaohong Hu
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  4. Hong Jin
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  6. Qinglan Tang
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Correspondence to Yong Tao or Xiangzhen Li.

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It is the original work of the authors. The work described here has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, in whole or in part, and all authors listed carry out the data analysis and manuscript writing, and this article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Moreover, all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Tao, Y., Hu, X., Zhu, X. et al. Production of Butyrate from Lactate by a Newly Isolated Clostridium sp. BPY5. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 179, 361–374 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-016-1999-6

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