Suchergebnisse

The gasification of organic waste materials to synthesis gas (syngas), followed by microbial fermentation provides a significant resource for generating bioproducts such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). The anaerobic photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodospirillum rubrum, is an organism particularly attractive for the bioconversion of syngas into PHAs. In this study, a quantitative physiological analysis of R. rubrum was carried out by implementing GC-MS and HPLC techniques to unravel the metabolic pathway operating during syngas fermentation that leads to PHA production. Further, detailed investigations of the central carbon metabolites using 13C-labeled substrate showed significant CO2 assimilation (of 40 %) into cell material and PHA from syngas carbon fraction. By a combination of quantitative gene expression and enzyme activity analyses, the main role of carboxylases from the central carbon metabolism in CO2 assimilation was shown, where the Calvin Benson-Bassham Cycle (CBB) played a minor role. This knowledge sheds light about the biochemical pathways that contribute to synthesis of PHA during syngas fermentation being valuable information to further optimize the fermentation process. ; This work has been funded by the EU project SYNPOL (grant agreement n° 311815) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme. ; Peer reviewed