Genome Shuffling of Clostridium acetobutylicum CICC 8012 for Improved Production of Acetone–Butanol–Ethanol (ABE)

Genome shuffling was applied to increase ABE production of the strict anaerobe C. acetobutylicum CICC 8012. By using physical and chemical mutagenesis, strains with superior streptomycin sulfate, 2-deoxy-d-glucose and butanol tolerance levels were isolated. These strains were used for genome shuffling. The best performing strain F2-GA was screened after two rounds of genome shuffling. With 55 g glucose/l as carbon source, F2-GA produced 22.21 g ABE/l in 72 h and ABE yield reached 0.42 g/g which was about 34.53 % improvement compared to the wild type. Fermentation parameters and gene expression of several key enzymes in ABE metabolic pathways were varied significantly between F2-GA and the wild type. These results demonstrated the potential use of genome shuffling to microbial breeding which were difficult to deal with traditional methods.