Ethanol Production by Thermophilic Bacteria: Physiological Comparison of Solvent Effects on Parent and Alcohol-Tolerant Strains of Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum

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The effects of temperature, solvents, and cultural conditions on the fermentative physiology of an ethanol-tolerant (56 g/liter at 60°C) and parent strain of Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum were compared. An ethanol-tolerant mutant was selected by successive transfer of the parent strain into media with progressively higher ethanol concentrations. Physiological differences noted in the mutant included enhanced growth, tolerance to various solvents, and alterations in the substrate range and the fermentation end product ratio. Ethanol tolerance was temperature dependent in the mutant but not in the parent strain. The mutant grew with ethanol concentrations up to 8.0% (wt/vol) at 45°C, but only up to 3.3% (wt/vol) at 68°C. Low ethanol concentration (0.2 to 1.6% [wt/vol]) progressively inhibited the parent strain to where glucose was not fermented at 2.0% (wt/vol) ethanol. Both strains grew and produced alcohols on glucose complex medium at 60°C in the presence of either 5% methanol or acetone, and these solvents when added at low concentration stimulated fermentative metabolism. The mutant produced ethanol at high concentrations and displayed an ethanol/glucose ratio (mole/mole) of 1.0 in media where initial ethanol concentrations were ≤4.0% (wt/vol), whereas when ethanol concentration was changed from 0.1% to 1.6% (wt/vol), the ethanol/glucose ratio for the parent strain changed from 1.6 to 0.6. These data indicate that C. thermohydrosulfuricum strains are tolerant of solvents and that low ethanol tolerance is not a result of disruption of membrane fluidity or glycolytic enzyme activity.

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