An improved Kinetic Model for Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Pathway of Clostridium acetobutylicum and Model-Based Perturbation Analysis

Kinetic models help to understand microbial metabolism and optimize biomass production. Up to date, only one kinetic model for Clostridium acetobutylicum acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) process has been reported. In the present work, we developed an improved kinetic ABE model, whose simulation results were more consistent with experimental observations, especially in terms of reflecting butyryl-phosphate and butyrate kinetics. Based on our model, we find that butyrate kinase has positive influence on butanol production while CoA transferase has negative effect, indicating that the path through butyrate kinase is preferred by the bacteria for converting butyrate to butanol. Analyses of the predictions may provide insight in the regulatory mechanisms of ABE process.