Metabolic engineering of Clostridium acetobutylicum: recent advances to improve butanol production

The biosynthesis of the solvents 1-butanol and acetone is restricted to species of the genus Clostridium, a diverse group of Gram-positive, endospore forming anaerobes comprising toxin-producing strains as well as terrestrial non-pathogenic species of biotechnological impact. Among solventogenic clostridia, Clostridium acetobutylicum represents the model organism and general but yet important genetic tools were established only recently to investigate and understand the complex life cycle-accompanied physiology and its regulatory mechanisms. Since clostridial butanol production regained much interest in the past few years, different metabolic engineering approaches were conducted — although promising and in part successful strategies were employed, the major breakthrough to generate an optimum phenotype with superior butanol titer, yield and productivity still remains to be expected.

Research highlights
► The importance of redox balance and stoichiometry is highlighted for successful metabolic engineering strategies.
► New developments of analytical and engineering tools are compiled.
► Examples of rational and combinatorial engineering approaches are discussed.