Metabolic process engineering of Clostridium tyrobutyricum Δack-adhE2 for enhanced n-butanol production from glucose: Effects of methyl viologen on NADH availability, flux distribution, and fermentation kinetics

ABSTRACT Butanol biosynthesis through aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase (adhE2) is usually limited by NADH availability, resulting in low butanol titer, yield, and productivity. To alleviate this limitation and improve n‐butanol production by Clostridium tyrobutyricum Δack–adhE2 overexpressing adhE2, the NADH availability was increased by using methyl viologen (MV) as an artificial electron carrier to divert electrons from ferredoxin normally used for H2 production. In the batch fermentation with the addition of 500 μM MV, H2, acetate, and butyrate production was reduced by more than 80–90%, while butanol production increased more than 40% to 14.5 g/L. Metabolic flux analysis revealed that butanol production increased in the fermentation with MV because of increased NADH availability as a result of reduced H2 production. Furthermore, continuous butanol production of ∼55 g/L with a high yield of ∼0.33 g/g glucose and extremely low ethanol, acetate, and butyrate production was obtained in fed‐batch fermentation with gas stripping for in situ butanol recovery. This study demonstrated a stable and reliable process for high‐yield and high‐titer n‐butanol production by metabolically engineered C. tyrobutyricum by applying MV as an electron carrier to increase butanol biosynthesis. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;112: 705–715. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. High‐yield and high‐titer n‐butanol production from glucose by metabolically engineered Clostridium tyrobutyricum was achieved via the utilization of an artificial electron carrier, methyl viologen, to divert electrons from ferredoxin normally used for hydrogen production to NADH, which can drive more carbon flux towards n‐butanol biosynthesis. Further improvements in butanol titer and yield were obtained in fed‐batch fermentation integrated with gas stripping for in situ butanol recovery.