Acetogenic Bacteria
for Biotechnological Applications
Dennis Litty and Volker Müller
Abstract
Acetogenic bacteria are a group of strictly anaerobic bacteria that employ the
Wood–Ljungdahl pathway to reduce two molecules of CO 2 to acetyl-CoA, the
central intermediate to various chemical compounds such as acetate, ethanol or
butyrate. The capability of acetogens to utilize a wide range of substrates
including industrial waste gas, methanol, formate and CO has led to a
tremendous interest over the last decade to use them as industrial platform
organisms to produce these valuable chemical compounds. In addition, some
acetogens also possess a unique enzyme complex that directly reduces CO 2 to
formate with H 2 as electron donor. This complex is superior over any chemical
catalyst in hydrogenation of CO 2 and, therefore, these acetogens are also
promising candidates for storage or production of hydrogen as well as carbon
capture and storage. In this chapter, we discuss the biochemistry of acetogenic
bacteria and give an overview of highlighted acetogenic organisms with respect
to their biotechnical applications. Moreover, we discuss the progress that has
been made in the development of metabolically engineered acetogens as
biocatalysts for the production of valuable compounds such as acetone or
biopolymers.
Keywords
Acetogens Á Bioenergetics Á Biofuels Á Syngas
D. Litty Á V. Müller (&)
Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences,
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Frankfurt, Germany
e-mail: vmueller@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. J. G. Moura et al. (eds.), Enzymes for Solving Humankind's Problems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58315-6_4
109
for Biotechnological Applications
Dennis Litty and Volker Müller
Abstract
Acetogenic bacteria are a group of strictly anaerobic bacteria that employ the
Wood–Ljungdahl pathway to reduce two molecules of CO 2 to acetyl-CoA, the
central intermediate to various chemical compounds such as acetate, ethanol or
butyrate. The capability of acetogens to utilize a wide range of substrates
including industrial waste gas, methanol, formate and CO has led to a
tremendous interest over the last decade to use them as industrial platform
organisms to produce these valuable chemical compounds. In addition, some
acetogens also possess a unique enzyme complex that directly reduces CO 2 to
formate with H 2 as electron donor. This complex is superior over any chemical
catalyst in hydrogenation of CO 2 and, therefore, these acetogens are also
promising candidates for storage or production of hydrogen as well as carbon
capture and storage. In this chapter, we discuss the biochemistry of acetogenic
bacteria and give an overview of highlighted acetogenic organisms with respect
to their biotechnical applications. Moreover, we discuss the progress that has
been made in the development of metabolically engineered acetogens as
biocatalysts for the production of valuable compounds such as acetone or
biopolymers.
Keywords
Acetogens Á Bioenergetics Á Biofuels Á Syngas
D. Litty Á V. Müller (&)
Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences,
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Frankfurt, Germany
e-mail: vmueller@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. J. G. Moura et al. (eds.), Enzymes for Solving Humankind's Problems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58315-6_4
109