scholarly journals Hydrogen production in an aerobic environment by Escherichia coli K-12

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D Metcalfe ◽  
Frank Sargent ◽  
Michael Hippler

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a facultative anaerobe that can grow in a variety of environmental conditions. In the complete absence of O2, E. coli can perform a mixed-acid fermentation that contains within it an elaborate metabolism of formic acid. In this study, we use cavity-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (CERS), FTIR, liquid Raman spectroscopy, isotopic labelling, and molecular genetics to make advances in the understanding of bacterial formate and H2 metabolism. It is shown that, under anaerobic conditions, formic acid is generated endogenously, excreted briefly from the cell, and then taken up again to be disproportionated to H2 and CO2 by formate hydrogenlyase (FHL-1). However, exogenously added D-labelled formate behaves quite differently from the endogenous formate and is taken up immediately, independently, and possibly by a different mechanism, by the cell and converted to H2 and CO2. Our data support an anion-proton symport model for formic acid transport. In addition, when E. coli was grown in a microaerobic environment it was possible to analyse aspects of formate and O2 respiration occurring alongside anaerobic metabolism. While cells growing under microaerobic conditions generated endogenous formic acid, no H2 was produced. However, addition of exogenous formate at the outset of cell growth did induce FHL-1 biosynthesis and resulted in formate-dependent H2 production in the presence of O2.

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (24) ◽  
pp. 7561-7569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliy A. Portnoy ◽  
Markus J. Herrgård ◽  
Bernhard Ø. Palsson

ABSTRACT Fermentation of glucose to d-lactic acid under aerobic growth conditions by an evolved Escherichia coli mutant deficient in three terminal oxidases is reported in this work. Cytochrome oxidases (cydAB, cyoABCD, and cbdAB) were removed from the E. coli K12 MG1655 genome, resulting in the ECOM3 (E. coli cytochrome oxidase mutant) strain. Removal of cytochrome oxidases reduced the oxygen uptake rate of the knockout strain by nearly 85%. Moreover, the knockout strain was initially incapable of growing on M9 minimal medium. After the ECOM3 strain was subjected to adaptive evolution on glucose M9 medium for 60 days, a growth rate equivalent to that of anaerobic wild-type E. coli was achieved. Our findings demonstrate that three independently adaptively evolved ECOM3 populations acquired different phenotypes: one produced lactate as a sole fermentation product, while the other two strains exhibited a mixed-acid fermentation under oxic growth conditions with lactate remaining as the major product. The homofermenting strain showed a d-lactate yield of 0.8 g/g from glucose. Gene expression and in silico model-based analyses were employed to identify perturbed pathways and explain phenotypic behavior. Significant upregulation of ygiN and sodAB explains the remaining oxygen uptake that was observed in evolved ECOM3 strains. E. coli strains produced in this study showed the ability to produce lactate as a fermentation product from glucose and to undergo mixed-acid fermentation during aerobic growth.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magali Roger ◽  
Tom C. Reed ◽  
Frank Sargent

ABSRACTEscherichia coli is gram-negative bacterium that is a workhorse of the biotechnology industry. The organism has a flexible metabolism and can perform a mixed-acid fermentation under anaerobic conditions. Under these conditions E. coli synthesises a formate hydrogenlyase isoenzyme (FHL-1) that can generate molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide from formic acid. The reverse reaction is hydrogen-dependent carbon dioxide reduction (HDCR), which has exciting possibilities in bio-based carbon capture and storage if it can be harnessed. In this study, an E. coli host strain was optimised for the production of formate from H2 and CO2 during bacterial growth in a pressurised batch bioreactor. A host strain was engineered that constitutively produced the FHL-1 enzyme and incorporation of tungsten in to the enzyme, in place of molybdenum, helped poise the reaction in the HDCR direction. The engineered E. coli strain showed an ability to grow under fermentative conditions while simultaneously producing formate from gaseous H2 and CO2 supplied in the bioreactor. However, while a sustained pressure of 10 bar N2 had no adverse effect on cell growth, when the culture was placed at or above 4 bar pressure of a H2:CO2 mixture then a clear growth deficiency was observed. Taken together, this work demonstrates that growing cells can be harnessed to hydrogenate carbon dioxide and provides fresh evidence that the FHL-1 enzyme may be intimately linked with bacterial energy metabolism.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Xing Wei ◽  
Wei-Tao Zheng ◽  
Xue Hou ◽  
Jian Liang ◽  
Zheng-Jun Li

The alcohol dehydrogenase promoterPadhEand mixed acid fermentation pathway deficient mutants ofEscherichia coliwere employed to produce poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) under microaerobic condition. TheE. colimutant withackA-pta, poxB, ldhA, andadhEdeletions accumulated 0.67 g/L P3HB, up to 78.84% of cell dry weight in tube cultivation. The deletion of pyruvate formate-lyase genepflBdrastically decreased P3HB production and P3HB content to 0.09 g/L and 24.44%, respectively. OverexpressingpflBvia the plasmid in its knocked out mutant restored cell growth and P3HB accumulation, indicating the importance of the pyruvate formate-lyase in microaerobic carbon metabolism. The engineeredE. coliBWapld (pWYC09) produced 5.00 g/L P3HB from 16.50 g/L glucose in 24 h batch fermentation, and P3HB production yield from glucose was 0.30 g/g, which reached up to 63% of maximal theoretical yield.


2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 547-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijian Ding ◽  
Juanjuan Chen ◽  
Jianding Zou ◽  
Limin Zhang ◽  
Yangfang Ye

Previously, we reported the metabolic responses of Pseudomonas sp. strain HF-1, a nicotine-degrading bacterium, to nicotine stress. However, the metabolic effects of nicotine on non-nicotine-degrading bacteria that dominate the environment are still unclear. Here, we have used nuclear magnetic resonance based metabolomics in combination with multivariate data analysis methods to comprehensively analyze the metabolic changes in nicotine-treated Escherichia coli. Our results showed that nicotine caused the changes of energy-related metabolism that we believe are due to enhanced glycolysis and mixed acid fermentation as well as inhibited tricarboxylic acid cycle activity. Furthermore, nicotine resulted in the alteration of choline metabolism with a decreased synthesis of betaine but an increased production of dimethylamine. Moreover, nicotine caused a decrease in amino acid concentration and an alteration of nucleotide synthesis. We hypothesize that these changes caused the decrease in bacterial cell density observed in the experiment. These findings provide a comprehensive insight into the metabolic response of E. coli to nicotine stress. Our study highlights the value of metabolomics in elucidating the metabolic mechanisms of nicotine action.


2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.G. Sawers

The production of dihydrogen by Escherichia coli and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae is one of the classic features of mixed-acid fermentation. Synthesis of the multicomponent, membrane-associated FHL (formate hydrogenlyase) enzyme complex, which disproportionates formate into CO2 and H2, has an absolute requirement for formate. Formate, therefore, represents a signature molecule in the fermenting E. coli cell and factors that determine formate metabolism control FHL synthesis and consequently dihydrogen evolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
O.A. Zhuravliova ◽  
Т.А. Voeikova ◽  
A.Yu. Gulevich ◽  
V.G. Debabov

The plasmidless and markerless Escherichia coli succinate producing strain SGM2.0Pyc-int has been engineered and characterized. The strain has the inactivated main mixed-acid fermentation pathways due to the deletions of ldhA,poxB, ackA,pta, and adhE genes, constitutively expresses the genes of the aceEF-lpdA operon encoding components of pyravate dehydrogenase complex, and possesses the chromosomally integrated Bacillus subtilis pycA gene coding for pyruvate carboxylase. The capacity of the strain to synthesize succinic acid in course of dual-phase aerobic-anaerobic fermentation with lignocellulosic sugars as substrates was studied. The SGM2.0Pyc-int strain synthesized succinic acid from glucose, xylose, and arabinose with a molar yields of 1.41 mol/mol, 1.18 mol/mol, and 1.18 mol/mol, respectively, during the anaerobic production stage. The constructed strain has great potential for developing efficient processes for the succinic acid production from plant biomass-derived sugars. Escherichia coli, fermentation, arabinose, glucose, xylose, succinic acid. The work was supported by a Grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project no. 18-29-14005).


Genetics ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
B L Berg ◽  
V Stewart

Abstract Formate oxidation coupled to nitrate reduction constitutes a major anaerobic respiratory pathway in Escherichia coli. This respiratory chain consists of formate dehydrogenase-N, quinone, and nitrate reductase. We have isolated a recombinant DNA clone that likely contains the structural genes, fdnGHI, for the three subunits of formate dehydrogenase-N. The fdnGHI clone produced proteins of 110, 32 and 20 kDa which correspond to the subunit sizes of purified formate dehydrogenase-N. Our analysis indicates that fdnGHI is organized as an operon. We mapped the fdn operon to 32 min on the E. coli genetic map, close to the genes for cryptic nitrate reductase (encoded by the narZ operon). Expression of phi(fdnG-lacZ) operon fusions was induced by anaerobiosis and nitrate. This induction required fnr+ and narL+, two regulatory genes whose products are also required for the anaerobic, nitrate-inducible activation of the nitrate reductase structural gene operon, narGHJI. We conclude that regulation of fdnGHI and narGHJI expression is mediated through common pathways.


1982 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
E H Berglin ◽  
M B Edlund ◽  
G K Nyberg ◽  
J Carlsson

Under anaerobic conditions an exponentially growing culture of Escherichia coli K-12 was exposed to hydrogen peroxide in the presence of various compounds. Hydrogen peroxide (0.1 mM) together with 0.1 mM L-cysteine or L-cystine killed the organisms more rapidly than 10 mM hydrogen peroxide alone. The exposure of E. coli to hydrogen peroxide in the presence of L-cysteine inhibited some of the catalase. This inhibition, however, could not fully explain the 100-fold increase in hydrogen peroxide sensitivity of the organism in the presence of L-cysteine. Of other compounds tested only some thiols potentiated the bactericidal effect of hydrogen peroxide. These thiols were effective, however, only at concentrations significantly higher than 0.1 mM. The effect of L-cysteine and L-cystine could be annihilated by the metal ion chelating agent 2,2'-bipyridyl. DNA breakage in E. coli K-12 was demonstrated under conditions where the organisms were killed by hydrogen peroxide.


2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Yohannes ◽  
D. Michael Barnhart ◽  
Joan L. Slonczewski

ABSTRACT During aerobic growth of Escherichia coli, expression of catabolic enzymes and envelope and periplasmic proteins is regulated by pH. Additional modes of pH regulation were revealed under anaerobiosis. E. coli K-12 strain W3110 was cultured anaerobically in broth medium buffered at pH 5.5 or 8.5 for protein identification on proteomic two-dimensional gels. A total of 32 proteins from anaerobic cultures show pH-dependent expression, and only four of these proteins (DsbA, TnaA, GatY, and HdeA) showed pH regulation in aerated cultures. The levels of 19 proteins were elevated at the high pH; these proteins included metabolic enzymes (DhaKLM, GapA, TnaA, HisC, and HisD), periplasmic proteins (ProX, OppA, DegQ, MalB, and MglB), and stress proteins (DsbA, Tig, and UspA). High-pH induction of the glycolytic enzymes DhaKLM and GapA suggested that there was increased fermentation to acids, which helped neutralize alkalinity. Reporter lac fusion constructs showed base induction of sdaA encoding serine deaminase under anaerobiosis; in addition, the glutamate decarboxylase genes gadA and gadB were induced at the high pH anaerobically but not with aeration. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a connection between the gad system and GabT metabolism of 4-aminobutanoate. On the other hand, 13 other proteins were induced by acid; these proteins included metabolic enzymes (GatY and AckA), periplasmic proteins (TolC, HdeA, and OmpA), and redox enzymes (GuaB, HmpA, and Lpd). The acid induction of NikA (nickel transporter) is of interest because E. coli requires nickel for anaerobic fermentation. The position of the NikA spot coincided with the position of a small unidentified spot whose induction in aerobic cultures was reported previously; thus, NikA appeared to be induced slightly by acid during aeration but showed stronger induction under anaerobic conditions. Overall, anaerobic growth revealed several more pH-regulated proteins; in particular, anaerobiosis enabled induction of several additional catabolic enzymes and sugar transporters at the high pH, at which production of fermentation acids may be advantageous for the cell.


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