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Over-expression of stress protein-encoding genes helps Clostridium acetobutylicum to rapidly adapt to butanol stress

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Abstract

The toxicity of n-butanol in microbial fermentations limits its formation. The stress response of Clostridium acetobutylicum involves various stress proteins and therefore, over-expression of genes encoding stress proteins constitutes an option to improve solvent tolerance. Over-expression of groESL, grpE and htpG, significantly improved butanol tolerance of C. acetobutylicum. Whereas the wild type and vector control strain did not survive 2 % (v/v) butanol for 2 h, the recombinant strains showed 45 % (groESL), 25 % (grpE) and 56 % (htpG), respectively, of the initial c.f.u. after 2 h of butanol exposure. As previously, over-expression of groESL led to higher butanol production rates, but the novel strains over-expressing grpE or htpG produced only 51 and 68 %, respectively, of the wild type butanol concentrations after 72 h clearly differentiating butanol tolerance and production. Not only butanol tolerance but also the adaptation to butanol in successive stress experiments was significantly facilitated by increased levels of GroESL, GrpE and HtpG. Re-transformation and sequence analyses of the plasmids confirmed that not the plasmids, but the host cells evolved to a more robust phenotype.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Süd-Chemie AG and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (Grant no. 0315419A) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Mikrobiologie, Institut für Biowissenschaften, Universität Rostock, Albert–Einstein-Str. 3, 18059, Rostock, Germany

    Miriam S. Mann & Tina Lütke-Eversloh

  2. Süd-Chemie AG, Staffelseestraße 6, 81477, Munich, Germany

    Zdravko Dragovic & Georg Schirrmacher

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  1. Miriam S. Mann
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  2. Zdravko Dragovic
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  4. Tina Lütke-Eversloh
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Correspondence to Tina Lütke-Eversloh.

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Mann, M.S., Dragovic, Z., Schirrmacher, G. et al. Over-expression of stress protein-encoding genes helps Clostridium acetobutylicum to rapidly adapt to butanol stress. Biotechnol Lett 34, 1643–1649 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-0951-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-0951-2

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