Acetate adaptation of clostridia tyrobutyricum for improved fermentation production of butyrate

Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 is an acidogenic bacterium capable of utilizing xylose for the fermentation production of butyrate. Hot water extraction of hardwood lingocellulose is an efficient method of producing xylose where autohydrolysis of xylan is catalysed by acetate originating from acetyl groups present in hemicellulose. The presence of acetic acid in the hydrolysate might have a severe impact on the subsequent fermentations. In this study the fermentation kinetics of C. tyrobutyricum cultures after being classically adapted for growth at 26.3 g/L acetate equivalents were studied. Analysis of xylose batch fermentations found that even in the presence of high levels of acetate, acetate adapted strains had similar fermentation kinetics as the parental strain cultivated without acetate. The parental strain exposed to acetate at inhibitory conditions demonstrated a pronounced lag phase (over 100 hours) in growth and butyrate production as compared to the adapted strain (25 hour lag) or non-inhibited controls (0 lag). Additional insight into the metabolic pathway of xylose consumption was gained by determining the specific activity of the acetate kinase (AK) enzyme in adapted versus control batches. AK activity was reduced by 63% in the presence of inhibitory levels of acetate, whether or not the culture had been adapted.