Engineering Clostridium beijerinckii with the Cbei_4693 gene knockout for enhanced ferulic acid tolerance

•Mutated gene Cbei_4693 was found in mutant strain C. beijerinckii M11.•Disrupting Cbei_4693 in parental strain enhanced ferulic acid tolerance to 0.8 g/L.•Intracellular NADPH level dramatically increased in C. beijerinckii 4693::int.•This is the first time found Cbei_4693 related to ferulic acid tolerance.

A mutant strain of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, C. beijerinckii M11, which exhibited ferulic acid tolerance up to 0.9 g/L, was generated using atmospheric pressure glow discharge and high-throughput screening. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that this strain harbored a mutation of the Cbei_4693 gene, which encodes a hypothetical protein suspected to be an NADPH-dependent FMN reductase. After disrupting the Cbei_4693 gene in C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 using the ClosTron group II intron-based gene inactivation system, we obtained the Cbei_4693 gene inactivated mutant strain, C. beijerinckii 4693::int. Compared with C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, 6.23 g/L of butanol was produced in P2 medium containing 0.5 g/L of ferulic acid by 4693::int, and the ferulic acid tolerance was also significantly increased up to 0.8 g/L. These data showed, for the first time, that the Cbei_4693 gene plays an important role in regulating ferulic acid tolerance in ABE fermentation by C. beijerinckii.