Isolation and Characterization of Clostridium butyricum DSM 5431 Mutants with Increased Resistance to 1,3-Propanediol and Altered Production of Acids.

Clostridium butyricum mutants were isolated from the parent strain DSM 5431 after mutagenesis with N-methyl-N(prm1)-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and two selection procedures: osmotic pressure and the proton suicide method. Isolated mutants were more resistant to glycerol and to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) than was the wild type, and they produced more biomass. In batch culture on 62 g of glycerol per liter, the wild type produced more acetic acid than butyrate, with an acetate/butyrate ratio of 5.0, whereas the mutants produced almost the same quantities of both acids or more butyrate than acetate with acetate/butyrate ratios from 0.6 to 1.1. The total acid formation was higher in the wild-type strain. Results of analysis of key metabolic enzymatic activities were in accordance with the pattern of fermentation product formation: either the butyrate kinase activity increased or the acetate kinase activity decreased in cell extracts of the mutants. A decreased level of the hydrogenase and NADH-ferredoxin activities concomitant with an increase in ferredoxin-NAD(sup+) reductase activities supports the conclusion that the maximum percentage of NADH available and used for the formation of 1,3-PD was higher for the mutants (97 to 100%) than for the wild type (70%). In fed-batch culture, at the end of the fermentation (72 h for the wild-type strain and 80 to 85 h for the mutants), 44% more glycerol was consumed and 50% more 1,3-PD was produced by the mutants than by the wild-type strain.